From Ballotpedia

The goal of Ballotpedia is cultivate a strong democracy and thriving citizenship by building up a comprehensive almanac of information about elections, politicians and candidates at all levels of government. Voters have different values. We want all voters to have the information they need about candidates and ballot measures to cast a vote in accord with their values.

Ballotpedia is sponsored by the nonprofit Lucy Burns Institute, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Madison, Wisconsin. Founded in December 2006, LBI sponsors Ballotpedia, Judgepedia and WikiFOIA.

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Ballotpedia's goal

Our goal is to include information about every elected official in the United States. How many are there?

There are 87,576 governmental units in the United States as of June 30, 2002, according to the U.S. Census.^[1] In 1992, there were 85,006 units of government, a growth of 2,570 units of government over the period from 1990 to 2000.^[2]

In 1992, the U.S. Census bureau counted how many elected officials there are at all levels of government in the United States. They came up with a figure of 513,200.^[2] This is an average of slightly more than six elected officials per unit of government. If the ratio of elected officials to units of government remained consistent over that ten-year period, there'd have been 528,715 elected officials throughout the United States by 2002.

"Units of government" include:

• The federal government
• The 50 state governments
• County governments
• Subcounty general-purpose governments including municipal (city) governments and town or township governments.
• School district governments
• Special district governments (such as fire, park and water districts)

References

v • d • e Ballotpedia About Overview • Projects • Community • What people are saying • Training webinars • BP Review • Summer 2011 Intern Program • Support Ballotpedia Interior shot of Ballotpedia's office in Madison, Wisconsin Ballot measures Johanna Herman • Bailey Ludlam • Al Ortiz Statewide politicians Lauren Rodgers • David Godow State legislatures Jimmy Ardis • Justin Haas • Greg Janetka • Tyler King • Jackie Arthur • Tyler Millhouse • Geoff Pallay