The Lucy Burns Institute (LBI) is a nonpartisan educational organization that publishes Ballotpedia, an online encyclopedia of over 300,000 articles related to American politics and elections. ¹ The Lucy Burns Institute has been doing business as Ballotpedia since 2016.

The Lucy Burns Institute is an associate member of the State Policy Network, a coalition of free market state-level policy organizations. ² While LBI is nonpartisan, members of its board have affiliations with the Republican Party.

History

The Lucy Burns Institute (LBI) is a nonpartisan, educational organization that publishes Ballotpedia, an online encyclopedia of over 300,000 articles related to American politics and elections. LBI aims to provide comprehensive facts and information related to elections, election laws, candidates, and politicians at local, state, and federal levels. ³

LBI was founded in 2006 by Leslie Graves. In 2007, LBI launched WikiFOIA, a collaborative website intended to help citizens understand state-level Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) laws. Later in 2007, with sponsorship from the Sam Adams Alliance, LBI launched both Ballotpedia, a collaborative website designed to share information about state and local ballot measures and elections, and Judgepedia, a collaborative website containing information about federal and state court judge appointments and elections. LBI took over sponsorship of both websites in 2009, and in 2015, Ballotpedia absorbed Judgepedia. ⁴

Funding

The Lucy Burns Institute is funded by donations from individuals and foundations. While LBI does not disclose its donors, tax filings show notable donations from Donors Capital Fund, which contributed between 2010 and 2015;⁵ the Searle Freedom Trust, which contributed between 2010 and 2018;⁶ and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, which contributed between 2014 and 2018. ⁷

LBI also receives revenue through its premium research services by selling access to election and political information and through digital ad sales. ⁸

People

Staff

Leslie Graves is the founder and president of the Lucy Burns Institute. Graves formerly volunteered with the U.S. Term Limits Foundation. ⁹

Gwen Beattie is the chief operating officer at LBI. Beattie formerly worked as the vice president of operations at Think Freely Media and as executive vice president of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. ¹⁰

Geoff Pallay is editor in chief at Ballotpedia and formerly worked as a policy analyst for the South Carolina Policy Council. ¹¹

Kayla Harris is a senior communications associate at Ballotpedia. Harris is a former research director at Strata Policy and a former fellow at Center for Public Lands and Rural Economics. ¹²

Board of Directors

Board chair Mike Barnhart formerly worked as president of Sunshine Review and State Budget Solutions. ¹³

Tim Dunn works as the chair of Empower Texans and Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, and as vice chair of the right-of-center Texas Public Policy Foundation. Dunn also sits on the board of the Liberty Institute and was a founding board member of Citizens for Self-Governance. ¹⁴

Dan Liljenquist formerly served as a Republican member of the Utah State Senate. ¹⁵

Todd Graves formerly served as a Republican U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, as a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, and as a Missouri state assistant attorney general. ¹⁶

Steven Nemerovski is an adjunct professor at Columbia University. Nemerovski formerly served as Parliamentarian for the Illinois House of Representatives and as special counsel to the Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. ¹⁷

Board member emeritus Jack McHugh is a senior legislative analyst for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. McHugh formerly served as legislative chief of staff in the United States House of Representatives. ¹⁸

1. “Lucy Burns Institute.” Ballotpedia. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Lucy_Burns_Institute.
2. “The Network: Wisconsin.” State Policy Network, 2021. Accessed February 27, 2021. https://spn.org/directory/#WI.
3. “Lucy Burns Institute.” Ballotpedia. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Lucy_Burns_Institute.
4. “Lucy Burns Institute.” Ballotpedia. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Lucy_Burns_Institute.
5. Donors Capital Fund, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2010-2015, Schedule I, Part II.
6. Searle Freedom Trust, Return of Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2010-2018, Part XV, Line 3a.
7. Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Return of Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2014-2018, Part XV, Line 3a.
8. “Lucy Burns Institute.” Ballotpedia. Accessed March 1, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Lucy_Burns_Institute.
9. “Leslie Graves.” LinkedIn, 2021. Accessed February 27, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesliegraves/.
10. “Ballotpedia: Gwen Beattie.” Ballotpedia. Accessed February 27, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia:Gwen_Beattie.
11. “Ballotpedia: Geoff Pallay.” Ballotpedia. Accessed February 27, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia:Geoff_Pallay.
12. “Kayla Harris.” LinkedIn, 2021. Accessed February 27, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayladawnharris/.
13. “Mike Barnhart.” Ballotpedia. Accessed February 27, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Mike_Barnhart.
14. “Tim Dunn (Texas).” Ballotpedia. Accessed February 27, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Tim_Dunn_(Texas).
15. “Dan Liljenquist.” Ballotpedia. Accessed February 27, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Dan_Liljenquist.
16. “Todd Graves.” Ballotpedia. Accessed February 27, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Todd_Graves.
17. “About the Author.” Third Party. Accessed February 27, 202. http://www.thirdparty.today/.
18. “Jack McHugh.” Ballotpedia. Accessed February 27, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Jack_McHugh.