Our standards

How we stay neutral

SparkVotes exists so you can learn about the people on your ballot without the spin of campaign ads. These are the rules every profile follows.

What we include

Background: jobs, public offices, military service, and education.
Their case to voters: how each candidate describes their own priorities, summarized from their campaign website, speeches, debates, and interviews.
Positions: what the candidate has said they support or oppose, always attributed (“Says…”, “Supports…”).
Voting record: a selection of notable recorded votes for anyone who has served in a legislature, and notable opinions for judges.
Short quotes in the candidate's own words, with the date and setting.

What we leave out

Endorsements, ratings, or recommendations of any kind, from us or anyone else.
Opponents' characterizations, attack-ad claims, and opposition research.
Polls, fundraising horse-race coverage, and predictions.
Loaded words like “extreme”, “radical”, or “common-sense”, unless they're inside a direct quote.

Same rules for every candidate

Candidates are listed alphabetically by last name. Never by party, polling, or incumbency.
Every party label uses the same neutral style. Nothing on SparkVotes is color-coded red or blue.
Candidates in the same race get comparable depth in every section.
Photos are the candidate's official portrait or their own campaign headshot, cropped identically for everyone. We never use news or candid photos. Each photo is credited on the profile.

Sources

Every fact links to its source. We prefer primary sources: official government records (Congress.gov, the Ohio Legislature, the Ohio Secretary of State, court opinions), candidates' own campaign sites, and nonpartisan references like Ballotpedia, followed by mainstream news reporting. If we can't verify something, we leave it out.

SparkVotes is free and supported by advertising. We block political ads through our ad network's settings so that no campaign can buy space beside an opponent's profile. Advertisers have no influence over our content, and ads are always clearly labeled and kept separate from candidate information. If you ever see a political ad on SparkVotes, please tell us.

Report a correction

We fix errors quickly, for every candidate equally. Email corrections@sparkvotes.org with the candidate's name, what's wrong, and a link to a source. Campaigns are welcome to send corrections too; they're held to the same sourcing standard.

Independence

SparkVotes is not affiliated with any candidate, campaign, political party, PAC, or advocacy group, and it is not affiliated with SparkNotes or Barnes & Noble.