Ballotpedia:Our campaign finance and satellite spending coverage scope
This page outlines the scope of Ballotpedia's coverage of campaign finance and satellite spending. For the purpose of our coverage, campaign finance refers to funds raised and spent by a politician's campaign committee, while satellite spending refers to funds raised or spent as part of an election but not by a politician's campaign committee.
This page does not govern Ballotpedia's scope and methods for covering ballot measure campaign finance.
Our campaign finance coverage scope
Ballotpedia's campaign finance coverage scope varies depending on the level of government. Elections at each level of government—federal, state, and local—are regulated by their own campaign finance agencies, which set different standards for reporting and publishing campaign finance information.
All candidates for federal office must file reports with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which releases comprehensive data in bulk. Ballotpedia provides overview campaign finance figures for all congressional races, including each candidates' total receipts (funds raised), disbursements (funds spent), and cash on hand. For presidential elections, Ballotpedia uses the data published by the FEC to produce more detailed analyses of campaign fundraising. See our 2020 analysis here and our analysis for 2008-2016 here.
Candidates running for state office face differing reporting requirements based on the state they are running in (see a state-by-state breakdown here). In 2020, Ballotpedia partnered with Transparency USA to provide campaign finance information at the state level. Our partnership launched in March 2020 with initial coverage of three states and expanded to six additional states. All candidates running for office in those states, including state legislative candidates, received comprehensive finance updates as their campaigns filed new reports. As of 2024, that scope expanded to include 20 states.
For state-level elections in states outside the scope of our partnership with Transparency USA, we provide campaign finance information as it is made available by OpenSecrets (run by Center for Responsive Politics). This information is typically made available after the election is completed.
For local-level elections, Ballotpedia provides campaign finance information in battleground races only.
Our satellite spending coverage scope
- See also: Satellite spending
Ballotpedia's coverage of satellite spending is limited to battleground races only at all levels of government. Our policy is to cover any satellite spending that is covered in news reports or official campaign releases, as well as spending that is reported by our readers and can be verified via official campaign finance filings.
| |||||||||||