Legal
Last updated June 11, 2026 · Operated by Cooper, Levy & Partners, LLC · Not affiliated with any party, campaign, or government agency
DecodeTheVote is a free, nonpartisan civic-information tool. Everything on this site — candidate profiles, grades, race summaries, campaign-finance figures, election dates, registration links, and AI-generated analysis — is provided for general informational purposes only. It is not legal advice, voting instructions, or an official election resource.
Your county or state elections office is the only authoritative source for what is on your ballot, where and when to vote, and whether you are registered. Always confirm election-critical details (deadlines, polling places, registration status) with official sources before acting on them.
We build every profile from public records — FEC filings, Congress.gov, OpenStates, the Federal Register, state Secretary of State publications, and similar primary sources — and we link the source on every claim so you can verify it yourself. But public data is messy: filings lag, agencies publish errors, candidates withdraw, and races change after we last checked. Despite automated verification and human review, some information on this site will be incomplete, out of date, or wrong.
We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of any content. Where our data conflicts with a primary source, the primary source is right and we want to fix it — report errors through the feedback link in the footer or the contact page, and we will review and correct verified mistakes promptly.
Decode Grades are computed by a fixed, published rubric from observable signals (transparency, track record, specificity, accessibility). They are not endorsements, predictions, or judgments of character or ideology — two candidates with identical records receive identical grades. Our methodology is documented on the Our Methods page.
Some narrative text on this site is generated with the assistance of AI language models and then checked against cited sources. AI systems can make mistakes, including misreading a source or omitting context. Sections that fail our verification checks are withheld rather than published, and blank sections marked "insufficient data" are deliberate — but no automated system is perfect, and AI-assisted text should be read with the same healthy skepticism as any secondary source.
DecodeTheVote does not endorse, support, or oppose any candidate, party, or ballot measure. We accept no funding from campaigns, parties, PACs, or partisan organizations. Coverage decisions (which races and candidates appear) are driven by ballot data, not politics; gaps in coverage reflect data availability, never preference.
The site and all content are provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose and accuracy. To the maximum extent permitted by law, DecodeTheVote, its operator, and its contributors are not liable for any damages arising from your use of, or reliance on, the site or its content — including decisions you make as a voter, missed deadlines, or actions taken based on information that later proves incorrect.
Some jurisdictions do not allow certain warranty exclusions or liability limitations; in those places, these clauses apply to the fullest extent the law allows.
We link extensively to third-party sites — government databases, news coverage, candidate websites, Wikipedia, and Ballotpedia among others. Those sites are not under our control, and a link is not an endorsement of their content. Quoted figures (fundraising totals, vote counts, dates) reflect what the cited source reported at the time we retrieved it.
Candidate photographs come from public sources (official portraits, Wikimedia Commons) and are used for identification; rights remain with their respective holders. If you hold rights to an image used here and want it removed or re-credited, contact us.
You are welcome to read, share, and cite this site, including for journalism, research, and civic education — attribution to DecodeTheVote is appreciated. You may not misrepresent our content as a campaign endorsement, alter grades or figures while attributing them to us, or use the site in any way that violates election law.
We may update these terms as the project evolves. The "last updated" date above reflects the current version; material changes will be noted on this page. Continued use of the site after a change means you accept the updated terms.
Questions about anything on this page? Reach us through the contact page.
See also: Our methods · Mission · Contact