Methodology
How every record
How every record
is verified
VoteFiles states a fact in its own voice only when it can link the official source that proves it. When no official record exists, the page says: “No official record has been found at this time; we are watching for updates.” These rules are read from the same code that enforces them.
Data type
Election deadlines
SourceThe official election office or statute for each state and territory. Each admitted record keeps a copy of the official source, its SHA-256 fingerprint and the exact passage that states the date.
Rules
- Categories: registration, early in-person voting, mail-ballot request, mail-ballot return, Election Day voting.
- A date is published only while its record is verified, before its recheck date, and not on the source-monitor hold list.
- A daily automatic check refetches each official source. A record is withheld when the exact verified passage no longer appears on the official page; the official source could not be retrieved; the official PDF changed.
- Every date change, withdrawal and hold is logged in the public change feed and on the corrections page.
Data type
Officeholder rosters
SourceMembers of Congress: the unitedstates/congress-legislators project and Voteview, which compile the official record; both are named on the sources page. State and local officeholders: official government roster sources on an allowlist.
Rules
- Roster sources must be public https pages; sources that need a login or credential are refused.
- In court records a bare name is never used to link a person: the caption must name the office and match exactly one officeholder on the record date.
Data type
Roll-call votes
SourceVoteview per-Congress roll-call files (UCLA), refreshed from the server without deleting history. Where the House Clerk or Senate publishes the roll call, the vote links that official record.
Rules
- Vote positions recorded: YEA, NAY, PRESENT, NOT VOTING.
- Claim vs. Record checks a statement against the recorded vote only (method recorded-vote-v1).
- Permanent citations exist for these record kinds: bill, vote, eo, deadline.
Data type
Bills and laws
SourceGovInfo bill status bulk data and Statutes at Large metadata; citations link Congress.gov.
Rules
- Measure types are printed as the official record prints them (H.R., H.J.Res., H.Con.Res., H.Res., S., S.J.Res., S.Con.Res., S.Res.).
- Status labels are derived from official actions and never enter a citation; a citation carries only official fields.
- News coverage of a bill is shown only as attributed headlines from the last 168 hours.
Data type
Topics
SourcePrimary government records gathered for each topic under the editorial verification protocol, version 2.1.
Rules
- Attention (accepted news coverage over 7 days) ranks topics. It never establishes what government did.
- The separate Action signal measures official records dated within the last 30 days. High attention cannot raise Action.
- A public treatment must pass the scope, primary-record, contrary-record, later-action, identity, gap and freshness checks; if a required source is unavailable it stays private.
Data type
Coverage pages
SourceOutlet feeds: headlines shown verbatim with the outlet name, feed time and a link. Article text is never reproduced.
Rules
- Outlets are ordered only by when their first headline appeared, never by a rating. At most 3 headlines per outlet are shown.
- Outlet claims are labeled as their reporting, not as VoteFiles facts.
- The "On the record" panel lists only official records named in the coverage or verified by the research desk (at most 12). Keyword overlap alone never places a record there.
Data type
Stock trades
SourcePeriodic Transaction Reports published by the Clerk of the House. Senate eFD reports: not imported at this time.
Rules
- Every value is the filing's own: filer, owner, asset and ticker as filed, dates, and the amount range exactly as filed.
- The 45-day reporting check (5 U.S.C. 13105(l)) is computed from the two dates printed on the filing.
- A record is marked "related record" only when (a) the traded company's name as filed (the text before " - " or before the ticker, with a trailing security description such as "Common Stock" or "Class A Ordinary Shares" removed, at least five characters) appears verbatim, ignoring letter case, in the official bill title, or the ticker as filed (three or more characters) appears in that title as a separate upper-case word; or (b) the bill's recorded committee of referral has the same name as a committee the member currently sits on in the official chamber roster, and no committee of that name exists in the other chamber. The marker describes text and committee matches only.
- Dates are placed side by side for reference only. Proximity in time between a trade and any official action does not indicate any wrongdoing or any knowledge on anyone's part.
- Trade data is always free and is never sold, paywalled or used for solicitation (5 U.S.C. 13107(c)).
Data type
Campaign money
SourceVoteFiles does not publish campaign contribution or spending records at this time. FEC data is used only for election dates on the federal ballot pages.
Rules
- Before any contribution data is published: every donation links its FEC or state filing, and donor names and addresses are never sold, licensed or used for solicitation (52 U.S.C. 30111(a)(4)).
- A donation is never presented as evidence of a quid pro quo, and FEC registration is never presented as ballot status.
When we are wrong
Corrections are public
Material corrections, desk updates and every change to a published deadline are listed on the corrections page with the official source behind them.