Evidence you can inspect.
Judgment you can question.
Ballot Lens aims to explain California measures clearly, with a consistent standard for examining benefits, burdens, and uncertainty.
How we evaluate a measure
- Begin with the law. Identify current rules, the exact proposed change, and what each vote means.
- Use official analysis. Attribute fiscal estimates and keep assumptions visible.
- Examine affected groups. Explain the mechanism of a potential benefit or cost, including mixed effects.
- Separate claims from findings. Campaign arguments are attributed. Our interpretations are labeled.
- Trace disclosed money. Distinguish contributions, transfers, and spending. State the data’s date and coverage.
- Show control of public funds. List allocations, responsible administrators, reallocation and reimbursement powers, broader permitted uses, and reporting requirements. Distinguish authorized flexibility from evidence of misuse.
- Explain campaign persuasion. Display the official submitted arguments, link the campaigns listed in the Quick Guide, and label our analysis of messages and emotional appeals. Describe committee identities and sponsors with official registration links.
- Review and revise. Require human review before a final assessment; preserve corrections and text versions.
What neutrality requires
We use the same questions for every measure. We do not recommend a vote, infer motive from donations, invent missing opposition, or give unsupported claims equal weight with documented evidence. A group may benefit in one way and bear costs in another.
About this research preview
Ballot Lens is being developed by JB Herrera for everyday California voters. All 14 qualified November 2026 propositions have AI-assisted assessments awaiting human editorial review. Legal and campaign research was updated October 9, 2026. Published Power Search finance snapshots are dated October 8; each page shows its retrieval date and coverage.
Published transaction totals reconcile to their official search snapshots. Donor profiles cover 11 measures; Propositions 2 and 5 returned no usable search summary, and Proposition 39 exceeds the source’s 1,000-row limit. These gaps are not presented as zero donations. Original filings, amendments, expenditures, indirect funding, and deeper historical-code checks remain open. The limited research release retains pending-review labels and disabled search indexing.