Methodology
Burbank Votes should be useful, beautiful, and strict. The app now prioritizes verified 2026 election information over filler content.
Old candidate result pages and outdated profiles should not appear in the main voter flow. Historical data can be restored later in a clearly labeled archive.
City of Burbank, L.A. County, California Secretary of State, and Burbank Unified sources carry the most weight. News, forums, and campaign websites can supplement candidate pages after filing is official.
If a candidate has not publicly addressed a topic, the site should say “not found in public sources,” not guess.
Coverage indicators may describe how much public information exists. They must never imply political quality, candidate strength, or endorsement.
When new official candidate lists, ballot text, sample ballots, voter guides, or source material are published, add them with a reviewed date and a public link.
On the Record methodology
Only a candidate's official campaign website is reviewed, and only after the candidate appears in official City Clerk records. Fundraising and volunteer pages, slogans, and duplicate content are excluded. Reviews are refreshed on a regular schedule; newly added statements are highlighted and removed statements are archived with their dates.
The exact sentence is quoted verbatim with a link to the page it appears on, then classified. Positions, promises, opinions, and predictions are displayed but never rated — a factual verdict on someone's values or future intentions is not possible, and pretending otherwise would be editorializing. Only checkable factual statements receive verdicts.
Evidence must come from official government records: city budgets, agendas, minutes, staff reports, municipal code, county, state, and federal agencies, and verified public datasets. Blogs, opinion pieces, social media, and campaign materials are never used as verification. Newer official data outweighs older data; primary records outweigh summaries. When authoritative sources conflict, every source is shown and the difference is explained.
Anyone — including campaigns — can submit a correction, response, or additional evidence on any claim. Submissions are marked Pending Review, evaluated by a person against official records, and resolved as Updated, Correction Added, or Clarification Added. Every change is recorded in the claim's public revision history. No review is generated or published by software alone: a person approves each one.
