[Hiring] Election Data Researcher @Ballotpedia

Ballotpedia is seeking to hire a full-time, 100% remote Election Data Researcher. 

Reporting to the Local Elections Project Manager, the Election Data Researcher will conduct research and monitor public sources, primarily online, to generate and maintain a comprehensive election date calendar, especially at the local level, all the way down to the smallest cities and school districts. This position will also conduct candidate data research and help manage and audit candidate data research workflows for upcoming elections.

As an Election Data Researcher, you will grow to develop a good understanding of local election administration processes and know how to appropriately research, categorize, and summarize varying systems to fit the structure required to generate Ballotpedia’s election calendar.

This is a great position for a skilled researcher who is passionate about the opportunity to help expand fact-based, neutral election coverage in the United States for American voters, especially at the local level.

Responsibilities

As an Election Data Researcher, you will:

• Research reliable elections information sources and develop automated election date research protocols.
• Monitor and process the results of automated and manual research to generate and maintain Ballotpedia’s election calendar.
• Cross-reference election notices and local administrative dates with rules and existing election date data to help determine candidate data research timelines according to a cohesive local election calendar.
• Maintain and improve database of sources and research processes to improve Ballotpedia’s local election calendar over time.
• Conduct data review and data cleanup activities, including:
• Reviewing data for errors and inconsistencies, making corrections based on knowledge of Ballotpedia data standards and awareness of current information in Ballotpedia’s database.   
• Learning and growing your knowledge of state and local elections administration practices in the various states that you may be assigned to perform data research and data cleanup.
• Participate in other election activities supporting Ballotpedia’s elections coverage, including: 
• Conducting election laws research and research on other pertinent political topics.
• Conducting candidate data research for specific local elections.
• Helping to manage and audit candidate data research workflows.

Qualifications and Characteristics

An ideal Election Data Researcher will:

• Have a passion for elections, election and voter information, and politics, with a commitment to Ballotpedia’s mission to remain neutral in providing fact-based, objective coverage.
• Have excellent research skills and the ability to follow general guidelines to locate appropriate online and direct outreach sources and record information in an organized, concise manner to answer detailed questions.
• Have exceptional attention to detail and an ability to understand complex processes and consistently follow complex instructions over a large number of iterations.
• Be able to accurately and concisely summarize complex concepts, difficult text, and detailed structures.
• Have sharp critical thinking skills with the ability to understand the varied structures of a large number of sources and apply more general categories and logical statements to those structures.
• Enjoy organizing their own lives and the world around them through elegant structures. 
• Enjoy receiving and implementing critical feedback for constant improvement.
• Be adept at using utilities such as Google Chrome, Docs and Sheets, or similar tools to navigate, find, record, organize, and clean up information gathered from the Internet.

Environment

The Election Data Researcher will work remotely from their home location. All Ballotpedia staff work remotely. To join Ballotpedia, you must have a computer with Internet access.

Ballotpedia has a flexible work environment, BP Flex, in which every employee enjoys unlimited vacation and flexibility in scheduling. Each employee will be oriented to the principles of Ballotpedia’s flexible environment during new employee training.

Compensation

The starting pay range for the Election Data Researcher is $40,000-$50,000/year commensurate with experience.

In addition to salary, Ballotpedia offers an annual benefits stipend equivalent to $8,000 that is paid out in equal increments in each paycheck once an employee becomes benefits eligible. The stipend may be used to pay for a full benefits package, including health, vision, and dental insurance; retirement accounts; and more. If benefits are not elected, the stipend is taxed as regular income and added to salary. 

To Apply

To apply, visit the Ballotpedia job opportunities page and fill out the form.

Please attach the following in PDF format:

• Résumé
• Cover letter detailing your interest in Ballotpedia’s mission, this position and your salary expectations

Please ensure that either your résumé or your cover letter include your current address.

Please note that if you are hired for this position, Ballotpedia participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, Ballotpedia is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you, including terminating your employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9. For more information on E-Verify, or if you believe that your employer has violated its E-Verify responsibilities, please contact DHS.

About Ballotpedia

Ballotpedia is a collaborative team of fast learners and creative problem solvers who are eager to work hard to make the world a better place. We believe the world will be a better place if every citizen has access to information to make informed decisions about their vote in every election in which they are eligible to vote: primary, general, and special elections; federal, state, and local offices.

We work diligently to present the available information about elections, candidates, judges, ballot measures, policies, and more in a way that enables our readers to vote with confidence and to act as engaged citizens outside of the polling booth.

Ballotpedia readers, like Ballotpedia staff, are special people.

When we launched in 2007, we did not go out of our way to seek new readers. Starting with our small team of visionary idealists, nerds, and aspiring political journalists, we just wrote the best unbiased online articles we could, especially about ballot measures. Readers found those articles in droves. It turns out there was an unclaimed audience out there—people who wanted straightforward facts about political issues, and were willing to read at length instead of just scanning the headlines.

“If you build it, they will come:” our readers came to our neutral oasis in growing numbers; we’ve had many millions of lifetime pageviews, we reached nearly half of all voters in 2020, and, in the month surrounding the November 2020 election, we were the 77th most-visited website in the U.S.

We’ve come to realize that we need to meet our readers where they are. In doing so, over the past five years, we’ve grown our email newsletter program from infancy to include more than 3,000,000 opt-in subscribers with more than a dozen newsletters to choose from. We are working in numerous ways to help put our neutral information in front of people at the times when they most need it, including on mobile phones while you’re standing in the voting booth. We firmly believe that our readers, and the mindset we help them cultivate, are essential in a world where too many others are fighting to get us all addicted to sensational posts and the irrational decisions they foster.

If this is a mission you’d be willing to work hard to achieve, and if this is a team you’d be willing to work hard with—JOIN US.