Bringing candidates and voters together to build a more vibrant democracy

Welcome to the Friday, April 4, Brew.

By: Briana Ryan

Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:

Bringing candidates and voters together to build a more vibrant democracy
2025 and 2026 ballot measure totals trend above averages for odd and even years
Two candidates are running in the special election for a seat on the Rock Ridge Public School Board in Minnesota

Bringing candidates and voters together to build a more vibrant democracy

Please join me here each Friday for my new column on what Ballotpedia is focused on building for you and for voters across the country. I’ll be looking at the challenges voters face — from understanding who and what is on their ballot to how elections are run. There will be columns on the opportunities to educate and empower voters and build a stronger civic community. I’ll also look at the success stories of those who’ve made a difference for voters and our democracy. Your feedback and insights are welcome. Now, let’s get started.

It’s Election Day. You’re in the voting booth, looking at your ballot, and you see a list of names you don’t recognize. You think, “I have no idea who these people are.”

How many times have you or someone you know had this happen?

We want voters to know who every candidate is on their ballot and what they stand for.

That’s a monumental challenge when you consider there are more than 500,000 elected officials nationwide — and 96% of them are at the local level. This problem is only getting more serious, as the media that so many voters used to rely on to cover those local races has cut back coverage or dropped it entirely.

Ten years ago, to grapple with this challenge and help get more information to voters, we created a Candidate Connection Survey.

Our survey isn’t like others out there. We aren’t sounding out candidates on particular issues or looking to grade them on their responses. Instead, the Candidate Connection Survey asks candidates what motivates them — their passions, hopes, and even a few fun questions about what superhero they would most like to be. The survey has more than 30 questions. Candidates can choose to answer some or all of them. After confirming the information, we post the answers on the candidate’s profile page on Ballotpedia.org. The responses also appear with the candidate’s profile on our Sample Ballot Lookup tool.

For candidates, the survey means they can talk to voters without filters — because we don’t edit their answers. For voters, it means getting a more complete understanding of who their candidates are — as people, not just politicians.

Over the last ten years of asking candidates to complete our survey, we’ve learned that there’s very little predictable or routine about our political system — especially for people running for local office. Complexity is the rule for candidates and elections, from the myriad number of dates when elections are held to the peculiarities of how local elections are run to what’s required of candidates to file for office.

Some might see this complexity as the genius of American politics. Others see it as a disaster waiting to happen. For us, getting the survey to the right candidates in the right election at the right time is a huge job — one that demands thousands of hours of staff and volunteer time.

When it does work, and we get those survey responses in, validated, and published, it’s extremely satisfying. The voters in that election will have at least one candidate — and sometimes, even all of them — sharing a wealth of information about themselves and their candidacies.

How are we doing? In 2024, we published more than 6,600 candidate surveys. It was a record year for responses. But we still have a long way to go.

We’re determined to reach that 500,000 threshold. And we’re willing to do it because if the survey is successful — and it can help voters understand how candidates think, where they stand, what they’ve done, and what they hope to achieve — everyone will benefit.

I think you agree with me: not only is it possible, it’s essential.

2025 and 2026 ballot measure totals trend above averages for odd and even years

As of April 1, six statewide measures have been certified for the 2025 ballot in Louisiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Voters have already decided on five of those measures:

On March 29, voters rejected four constitutional amendments in Louisiana.
On April 1, voters approved a constitutional amendment in Wisconsin.

The next ballot measure election is May 6 in Ohio.

Twenty-three measures have been certified for the 2026 ballot in 16 states. At this point in even-numbered election cycles since 2010, an average of 16 measures have been approved for the ballot.

Here’s an update on the ballot measure activity during the past two weeks.

Five measures were certified in four states for elections in 2026.

Four of those measures will appear on the Nov. 3, 2026, ballot. The Kansas Elections for Supreme Court Justices Amendment will appear on the Aug. 4, 2026, ballot.

Signatures were verified for two initiatives in Maine, which would appear on the Nov. 4, 2025 ballot. In Nevada, signatures were verified for one indirect initiative, which would appear on the ballot in 2026. As all three of these initiatives are indirect, the legislatures can pass them outright. Otherwise, voters will decide these initiatives.

The most recent signature deadline for citizen initiatives was Jan. 23, 2025, in Maine. Signatures were submitted for the two indirect initiatives.

The next signature deadlines for initiatives intended for the Nov. 4, 2025, ballot are July 2 in Ohio and July 3 in Washington.

The following chart shows the number of ballot measures certified each week of an odd-numbered year.

Click here for a deep dive into the measures certified for the 2026 ballot. You can also check out certifications for the 2025 ballot here.

Two candidates are running in the special election for a seat on the Rock Ridge Public School Board in Minnesota

As part of our ongoing coverage of local elections across the U.S., we’re spotlighting the special election for an at-large seat on the Rock Ridge Public School Board in Minnesota. Incumbent Brandi Lautigar and Pollyann Sorcan are running in the nonpartisan election on April 8.

Both candidates have served on the seven-member board before. Voters re-elected Sorcan in 2022 to a term ending in 2026. However, on Nov. 19, the board voted 5-1 to remove Sorcan. Sorcan did not attend the meeting. Lautigar was one of the five members who voted to remove Sorcan.

In the board’s resolution, Sorcan was accused of committing nonfeasance and malfeasance. The allegations against Sorcan included contacting an attorney representing a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the district and forwarding 383 emails from her school email to her private email account.

In a lawsuit against the board, Sorcan said her removal was “…in retaliation for her political advocacy, support of the community, and attempts to be truly informed on important issues directly relevant to the Board’s actions…” Lautigar’s term ended in January 2025, but she was appointed to fill Sorcan’s seat until the special election.

The district is located in St. Louis County, Minnesota, and during the 2022-2023 school year, 2,406 students attended five schools. The district was created in 2020 after voters in the Virginia and Eveleth-Gilbert school districts approved measures to consolidate the two districts.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the candidates.

Lautigar is a school social worker and therapist who has served on the Rock Ridge Public School Board/Eveleth-Gilbert School Board since 2016. Lautigar said she would:

Allocate resources wisely
Boost student enrollment
Improve discipline systems

Sorcan has served on local, regional, state, and federal governmental boards and committees regarding education for more than 40 years. Sorcan said she would:

Improve student achievement
Promote better fiscal management
Improve student behavior

For more information on this special election, click here.