www.ballotpedia.org can be an extremely useful source on elections — especially on propositions. It includes the backers and opponents, and the big contributors. But Ballotpedia “edit trolls” can alter or omit facts to suit their purposes. I just got involed in one such Ballotpedia situation on a California proposition.
Ballotpedia is very similar to Wikipedia in operation. Hence caution is advised.
I just corrected numerous errors in Ballotpedia’s post on California’s Prop 30 (on this November’s ballot) — the “Jerry Brown” MASSIVE statewide increase in taxes (income and sales taxes).
http://www.ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_Proposition_30,_Sales_and_Income_Tax_Increase_(2012)
EVERY error I found understated the cost to taxpayers, or just outright omitted damaging information concerning the prop. Coincidental or intentional?
I found that EVERY calculation on the income tax understated the percentage increase in the tax — by a LOT. Also it failed to include the 13.3% bracket on $1 million incomes in the summary — falsely claiming that the top bracket was 12.3% above $500,000. And it failed to mention the unjust retroactive nature of this tax — a November vote that will impose the income tax back to 1 January, 2012.
I’m now signed up as an editor (too easy to do). In addition to correcting the “errors” and adding important omitted facts, I also added some annotated arguments against Prop 30. The opposition arguments selected seemed to me to be particularly weak (gosh, I wonder why?).
My stuff can in turn be edited by others. We shall see if my corrections are reversed/deleted. I’m not optimistic, but I am hopeful.
I do recommend you go to the link. The info on who is funding this prop makes clear that this is a labor union-sponsored effort. The seven figure contributions from unions speak for themselves.
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Followup report. My experience with BallotPedia has been VERY positive about this matter. They not only LET me make the corrections — they STRONGLY encouraged it. And my corrections have all remained in place.
I think the original errors were intentional by some soul, but they do not reign supreme on the website. This is different than what I sometimes find on Wikipedia, where appointed “Gods” sometimes display blatant and imperious bias — blocking any factual disputation on their favored viewpoint. Articles such as Prop 13, CA High Speed Rail and Global Warming are controlled by such folks.