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About the Data
🇺🇸 Know Your Candidate is proudly built by a US Military Veteran.
Where information comes from
The full product prioritizes official, primary sources for every factual claim:
- Congress.gov — bills, votes, sponsored legislation
- U.S. House Clerk / roll call votes
- U.S. Senate
- State election authorities (for state/local expansion)
- News: linked directly to the publisher
Live status: candidate and election data comes from the Federal Election Commission. News links go directly to each publisher. Any field without an official source is shown as not currently available — nothing is invented.
APIs & sources for live data
- Elections / candidates: U.S. Senate (senate.gov), U.S. House Clerk (clerk.house.gov), FEC candidate database, state election authorities (later)
- Voting record & legislation: Congress.gov API (bulk + JSON + official roll-call votes)
- News: multi-publisher feeds with neutrality filtering
- Photos & profiles: official government or campaign profile images; official bio pages
How voting records are shown
Every voting record comes from official roll-call votes on Congress.gov — not from opinion. For each vote we show the bill, the date, and the member's confirmed vote: YES / NO / PRESENT / NOT VOTING.
- Only officially recorded roll-call votes are shown — never invented or guessed.
- Each vote links to the official congressional record.
- No vote is characterized as good, bad, right, or wrong.
- If a member's votes are not available, we say so plainly rather than estimate.
How news sources are selected
News is gathered from multiple reputable publishers spanning local, national, and official sources so no single political perspective is favored. Headlines are never rewritten to be more positive or negative. Fact-checking organizations are included as their own category. Sources link directly to the publisher.
Political-neutrality policy
- Every party is treated equally; no candidate is ranked or scored as better or worse.
- We never recommend who to vote for.
- We never label a candidate good, bad, dishonest, corrupt, dangerous, or extremist unless it is a clearly attributed statement from a reliable external source.
- Government records are clearly distinguished from news reports and candidate claims.
- AI-generated summaries are neutral and based only on source material.
- Every candidate uses the identical layout, methodology, and data standards.
- Political scores are explainable and reproducible from documented votes.
- No political persuasion or targeted campaign messaging is created.
When data was updated
Each data point shows a last-updated date. Static facts update monthly or on declaration. Votes and legislation update after each congressional action. News updates continuously.
How corrections can be submitted
Every "View Source" button carries the official source. To report an error, users point to the disputed data point, cite the authoritative source, and a human reviewer re-verifies before any change. All corrections are logged.
We do not share your information
- No account, no tracking: You can use the app without creating an account. We do not sell, rent, or share your personal information with anyone — not campaigns, not advertisers, not data brokers.
- Your ballot is local: Candidates you save are stored only in your own browser. They are never uploaded, never shared with campaigns, and never used to submit any vote.
- No persuasion profiling: We never build or personalize profiles of your political views, and we never use your data to decide who to persuade you toward. Neutrality applies to your data too.
- Ads are not personalized to you: Any ads you see are general and non-political. They are not targeted using your political activity or saved candidates.
- Billing: If you ever subscribe, payment is processed only by Stripe; we never see or store your card number.
The only thing that ever leaves your browser is a request you explicitly make to load public research (for example, fetching a candidate's photo or live news). Nothing about you is collected, tracked, or sent.
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Terms of Use
- For information, not as advice. Know Your Candidate presents sourced public records and information. It does not provide legal, financial, or voting advice, and it never tells you how to vote.
- Accuracy. We work from official and primary sources and shown as not available. Always verify time-sensitive details with your official election office.
- Your use. You may use the site for lawful, noncommercial research. You agree not to scrape, resell, or misuse the content.
- No warranty. The service is provided “as-is.” While we are careful with the record, we cannot guarantee every figure is current or error-free.
Privacy
- We never sell or share your information. Not to campaigns, PACs, advertisers, or data brokers.
- Your ballot and candidates stay local (in your browser) unless you explicitly choose otherwise.
- Accounts. We store the minimum needed to run the site (email for verification; a payment via Stripe/PayPal). We never see your card number.
- Contact. Messages you send via “Talk to the team” go to us for support; they are not published.
- Ads are general and non-political, and not targeted using your political activity.
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Deleting your information does NOT stop an active subscription. To stop billing, use “Cancel subscription — stop billing now” on the Plans page, which stops future charges and deletes your account and data too.
If you don't have an account, your saved candidates and ballot stay only in your own browser — clearing your browser data removes them.
Advertising Policy
To protect neutrality, we do not accept political advertising of any kind — no candidate, party, PAC, or issue-advocacy ads. The only ads allowed are non-political local business ads, and they are never personalized using your political activity. Sponsors never influence what we publish.
Nonpartisanship & Neutrality
Know Your Candidate never recommends, ranks, or favors any candidate, party, or ideology. Every candidate profile uses the same standardized format and the same sources. We do not rewrite headlines or spin the record — we show it and let you decide.
Home page visits
Approximate number of visitors who opened the home page, counted once per visitor per day. A simple counter — not personalized and not shared.
U.S. Government & Founding Documents
The founding documents, in order
- Lee Resolution (July 2, 1776) — the resolution declaring the colonies independent; adopted two days before the Declaration.
- Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776) — announced the colonies' separation from Great Britain and set out the principles of individual rights and government by consent of the governed.
- Articles of Confederation (ratified 1781) — the first, deliberately weak national government; replaced by the Constitution.
- Treaty of Paris (1783) — the treaty that ended the Revolutionary War and recognized the United States as an independent nation.
- Virginia Plan (1787) — the blueprint presented at the Constitutional Convention that shaped the Constitution.
- Northwest Ordinance (1787) — established how new territories were organized and could join the Union as states.
- U.S. Constitution (signed 1787, effective 1789) — the supreme law of the land; it establishes the federal government and its three branches.
- Federal Judiciary Act (1789) — established the federal court system under the Constitution.
- Bill of Rights (1791) — the first ten amendments to the Constitution, protecting individual rights.
- 13th Amendment (1865) — abolished slavery in the United States.
- 14th Amendment (1868) — defined citizenship and guaranteed equal protection under the law.
- 15th Amendment (1870) — guaranteed the right to vote regardless of race.
- 19th Amendment (1920) — guaranteed women the right to vote.
Source: the original parchments are held and displayed by the National Archives (archives.gov/milestone-documents).
How the federal government is divided
- Legislative (Congress — Senate + House of Representatives): makes laws, approves the budget, declares war, advises on treaties and confirmations (Senate).
- Executive (President + federal agencies): carries out and enforces the laws, commands the military, conducts foreign policy.
- Judicial (Supreme Court + federal courts): interprets the laws and the Constitution and reviews their constitutionality.
Separation of powers and checks and balances keep no single branch from becoming dominant.
The offices we track (federal only)
- President & Vice President — elected every 4 years via the Electoral College.
- U.S. Senate — 100 members, 2 per state, 6-year terms; a third elected every 2 years.
- U.S. House of Representatives — 435 members by district, 2-year terms; all elected every 2 years.
Congressional districts are apportioned by state population after each census (archives.gov / census.gov).
How these federal races are decided
- Presidential: voters choose electors; the Electoral College formally elects the President (the popular vote plus electors; 270 of 538 to win).
- Congress: voters directly elect Senators and Representatives; most states hold primaries and then a general election in November.
- Elections are administered by the states and local officials; federal rules set a uniform Election Day (the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November).
Source: usa.gov/voting-and-elections; official state election offices.
The legislative path (simplified, non-partisan)
- An idea is introduced as a bill in the House or Senate.
- The bill is assigned to a committee for review, hearings, and possible amendment.
- If it passes committee, it goes to the full chamber for debate and a vote.
- It must pass both chambers in identical form.
- It goes to the President, who may sign it into law or veto it; Congress can override a veto with a two-thirds vote.
Source: congress.gov/how-a-bill-becomes-law.
Official sources to check any claim
- Constitution & founding records: archives.gov/milestone-documents; constitutioncenter.org.
- Bills, votes, and members: congress.gov.
- Federal law & rulemaking: congress.gov and regulations.gov.
- Elections & voting: usa.gov and your state's official election office.
- Campaign finance: the Federal Election Commission (fec.gov).