BallotView Privacy Policy

01Who we are

BallotView (“we”) runs the website ballotview.us and the BallotView Android app. Both show 2026 U.S. races, candidates, campaign-finance records (mainly from the Federal Election Commission), and sourced policy statements.

BallotView is independent. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting for any government agency, political party, or campaign.

We do not offer accounts and do not ask for your name, email address, or phone number. We do not sell personal information or share it for advertising.

02What leaves your device

Everything below travels over HTTPS. Lookups go to the BallotView server first. The server then queries public services itself, so those services see our server, not your IP address.

Applies to the website and the app unless noted
Information	When	Sent to	Kept by BallotView
ZIP code	You search by ZIP	BallotView server, then Zippopotam.us (city and state) and the FEC OpenFEC API (congressional districts)	Not stored
Street address	You search by address	BallotView server, then the U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder	Not stored
Device location	You choose “Use my location” and allow it (see 03)	BallotView server, then the U.S. Census Bureau Geocoder	Not stored
Donor-name search	You search a candidate’s contributor list	BallotView server, then the FEC OpenFEC API	Public results cached ≤ 10 min
IP address and request data	Every request	Cloudflare, our hosting provider	Not stored by us
Page views	Website only, each page view	Cloudflare Web Analytics (no cookies)	Aggregate counts

03Location lookups

You can find races by ZIP code, street address, or device location, or skip all three and browse by state. Each lookup is used once, in memory, to answer that request. We do not save it, add it to links, write it to logs, or send it to analytics. The match you get back stays on your device until you close the page or the app.

Device location on the website

Your browser asks before sharing your location. The site does not ask for high accuracy, but your browser decides how precise the reading is. If you already allowed ballotview.us in your browser, the site looks up your area when you open it, without asking again. You can turn this off in your browser’s site settings. The reading goes to the Census Geocoder as your browser reports it.

Device location in the Android app

The app asks for approximate location only when you tap “Use my location.” It takes one reading and stops. If no new reading arrives, it may use your phone’s most recent approximate reading from the last 30 minutes instead. It never requests precise or background location, and Android reduces the reading to an approximate area before the app receives it.

ZIP codes and locations match areas, not your exact ballot. Confirm with your state election office.

04Donor search

When you search a federal candidate’s contributor list, with or without a name, our server asks the FEC for those public records. The request includes the candidate’s committee IDs, any name you type into the search box, the contributor type, and the page.

To reduce load on the FEC, Cloudflare’s cache keeps the public FEC response for up to 10 minutes. The cache entry is labeled with a one-way hash of the request. It is never linked to you, your device, or your IP address.

05Hosting and IP addresses

Cloudflare hosts the website, the app’s data, and the BallotView server. Like any web host, Cloudflare receives your IP address and standard request details (such as the page requested, browser or app type, and time) to deliver content and protect the service from abuse.

We keep our own server logging turned off.
Lookup and donor-search requests are limited per IP address to prevent abuse. Cloudflare keeps that counter for about a minute.
We never use your IP address to locate or identify you.

Cloudflare may keep its own operational and security logs under the Cloudflare Privacy Policy. Cloudflare’s network spans many countries, so requests may be processed outside your state.

06Website: cookies, storage, analytics

No cookies or local storage. The site does not set cookies or use local storage, session storage, or IndexedDB. Your browser may cache site files like any web page.
Cloudflare Web Analytics. We count page views and measure page speed with Cloudflare Web Analytics. Cloudflare adds a small script to site pages for this. It uses no cookies or local storage and does not follow you across sites. How it works.
No ads, ad trackers, or social widgets. Fonts and images load from ballotview.us. The analytics script is the only file that loads from elsewhere (Cloudflare).
Do Not Track. BallotView does not track you across sites, so the site works the same whether or not your browser sends a Do Not Track signal.

07Android app

Connections. The app talks only to ballotview.us, over HTTPS.
Permissions. Internet, and approximate location (optional, asked only when you tap “Use my location”).
On-device cache. The app saves a copy of the public election catalog, its image list, and up to 64 MB of candidate images so it opens quickly and works offline. This cache holds public records only, nothing about you. It is excluded from Android backups and device transfers. Remove it with Settings › Apps › BallotView › Storage & cache › Clear storage, or uninstall the app.
Lookups stay in memory while the app is open and are never written to storage.
No analytics, ads, crash-reporting tools, or advertising ID.
Source links open in your browser. The site you visit has its own privacy policy.
Share. The Share button passes a candidate’s name, race, and source link to Android’s share menu. We do not see what you share or with whom.
Google Play. If you install from Google Play, Google may give us aggregate install statistics and crash reports from people who chose to share them with Google. See the Google Privacy Policy.

08Third parties

These services receive only what they need to answer a request, and they receive it from our server, not from your device. Each may keep its own request logs under its own privacy policy. Zippopotam.us is a private service, not a government agency. We have no advertising or data-sale relationships.

Cloudflare, Inc.Hosting, security, rate limiting, website analyticsPrivacy policy
U.S. Census Bureau GeocoderStreet address or coordinates, to find state, district, and cityPrivacy policy
Federal Election Commission (OpenFEC API)ZIP code for district matches; donor searchesPrivacy policy
Zippopotam.usZIP code, to find city and stateWebsite

09Children

BallotView is a civic information service for adults 18 and over. It is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. Because we keep no lookup data, there is nothing stored to delete. If you have a concern, contact us.

10Security

All connections use HTTPS, and the app does not allow unencrypted connections. The server accepts only small, validated requests. Collecting as little as possible is our main protection: information we never store cannot leak from us. No system is perfectly secure.

11Your choices

Decline or revoke location access: browser site settings, or Android Settings › Apps › BallotView › Permissions.
Use a ZIP code, or browse by state, instead of device location.
Block website analytics with your browser’s tracking protection or a content blocker. The site still works.
Clear the app’s storage in Android settings, or uninstall the app.

Because we keep no personal information linked to you, there is usually nothing for us to find, export, or delete. Ask us and we will confirm.

12Changes

We will post any change on this page and update the “Last updated” date. If a change affects how lookups are handled, we will say so at the top of this page.

13Contact

Questions or requests: privacy@ballotview.us

Last updated October 20, 2026