Accuracy, updates and corrections

What it requires

Voters can tell how current a page is, see what changed, and get a sourced answer to false claims. Four criteria make up this standard.

Last-updated stamps

Key pages (key dates, polling places, ID requirements, results) show the date they were last updated, near the top of the page.

Corrections and change notices

When a date, location, or procedure changes, the affected page carries a visible notice describing the change and the date, and a site-wide change log lists it.

Rumor response page

A page lists common false or misleading claims about the jurisdiction's elections, each with a short factual answer and a link to the source (statute, procedure document, audit report).

Public error-reporting channel

Voters can report an error on the site through a form or email, and the page states how reports are reviewed and how quickly.

Why it matters

A correct page with no date forces the voter to guess whether it is current. Silent corrections, where an old date is replaced with no trace, undermine the voters who already acted on the old information and give critics room to allege manipulation. A rumor response page lets the office answer once, with sources, instead of in a hundred phone calls, and gives journalists and community groups something to link to.

How to implement

1. Add a "Last updated" field to the page template and populate it from the content system, not by hand.
2. Create a change log page and a notice component. Any change to a date, location, or procedure gets both an entry and a notice on the page for at least 30 days.
3. Build the rumor response page from the questions the office actually receives. Keep answers under 100 words and cite a source for each.
4. Add "Report an error" to the footer. Route it to a monitored inbox and state the review window.

Examples

Meets the standard. Each page shows "Updated September 30, 2026." A notice on the polling places page reads "Changed October 1: Precinct 12 moved from Elm Street Library to Oak Community Center." "Election facts" answers eleven claims with links. The footer's "Report an error" form promises review within one business day.

Partial. Pages show dates, but a precinct move was corrected silently and there is no rumor page.

Incomplete. No dates, no log, no error channel.

Snippets

Last-updated stamp with machine-readable date:

Page metadata for search engines:

Change notice (template):