Methodology

How we gather, verify, and present public records.

Electoral Accountability aggregates public records from government databases, campaign finance disclosures, legislative tracking systems, and verified news sources. No data is invented — every claim is sourced.

Data Sources

• FEC.gov — campaign finance disclosures
• Congress.gov — legislative data
• OpenStates — state legislature data
• Legistar — municipal government data
• US Census Bureau — demographic data
• GeoNames — geographic data

Scorecard Methodology

Scores are calculated from verified public records. Each metric is tier-weighted by source credibility. All scorecards cite their originating organization. Organizations are vetted through our moderation system.

Reporting a data error

Every fact on this platform is sourced, but sources and imports can be wrong or out of date. If you spot an error — a stale office, a misattributed vote, a broken citation — tell us. Use the citizen evidence form and select the affected politician or bill; a human moderator reviews every submission before anything changes.

Submitting evidence

Citizens can also submit new, sourced evidence about a politician or bill (a vote we're missing, a promise made in public, a funding link) through the same evidence submission form. Include a source URL wherever possible — unsourced submissions are not published.

Right of reply

Every official whose network, funding, or record is published is notified and given 14 days to respond before publication where practical, and at any time afterward. A response is added alongside the record with its own source attribution — it is never used to remove or suppress the underlying public-record fact, per our editorial principle of showing the fact and letting the citizen decide.