What's On My Ballot vs Ballotpedia: Which 2026 Election Tracker Fits You?
If you follow American elections, you almost certainly use Ballotpedia. So do we. It is the closest thing the United States has to a complete, neutral encyclopedia of its own politics, and nothing else comes close to its breadth. This page is not a "which site is better" argument, because on comprehensiveness there is no contest. Instead, it is an honest look at what each site is built for, so you can decide which one fits the question you are asking right now. For many readers, the practical answer is both.
What Ballotpedia is
Ballotpedia is a nonprofit digital encyclopedia of American politics and elections, published by the Lucy Burns Institute and written by a professional editorial staff. It covers hundreds of thousands of pages spanning nearly every layer of American government: federal, state, and local candidates, ballot measures, school board races, judicial elections, policy explainers, historical election results, and much more.
Its defining strengths are scope and neutrality. If a race exists anywhere in the country, from a U.S. Senate seat down to a municipal special election, Ballotpedia probably has a page for it, with candidate lists, filing deadlines, past results, and sourced biographical information. Journalists, researchers, and election officials treat it as a standard reference, and for good reason. It is the authoritative starting point for researching American politics at every level.
What What's On My Ballot is
What's On My Ballot is a much smaller and much narrower tool. We do one thing: track the 2026 midterm cycle, day by day, from the primaries through November 3. That focus shapes everything on the site:
- Daily-updated race ratings for the Senate, governor, and House contests that will decide 2026, refreshed as polls, filings, and results come in.
- An interactive election map where you can flip individual seats yourself and watch the balance of the Senate, the House, and governorships change. It is a "what if" sandbox, not just a static graphic.
- Primary results pages that track each state's 2026 primaries as they happen, so you can see who actually advanced to November.
- One email a day until Election Day, summarizing what moved: rating changes, primary outcomes, and notable polls. No flood of alerts, just a short daily brief.
- A ballot lookup to find the 2026 races that apply to your own state.
Everything is free, and everything is nonpartisan. We do not endorse candidates, and our race ratings describe competitiveness, not preference.
Side-by-side comparison
| Feature | Ballotpedia | What's On My Ballot |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | All of American politics: every office at every level, ballot measures, judges, policy, historical elections | The 2026 midterm cycle only: Senate, governors, House, and related primaries |
| Depth per race | Encyclopedic: candidate bios, past results, filing details, sourced references | Focused: current rating, recent polls, primary outcome, what changed |
| Update cadence for 2026 races | Continuously maintained by editorial staff across its full scope | Daily, specifically for 2026 race ratings and results |
| Interactive election map | Reference maps and election pages | Interactive map with what-if seat flipping and live balance-of-power totals |
| Email updates | Multiple newsletters across many topics | One short daily email focused on the 2026 cycle, through Election Day |
| Local and historical coverage | Extensive, down to school boards and past cycles | Not covered |
| Organization | Nonprofit encyclopedia with a professional editorial staff | Independent free site, nonpartisan, ad-supported |
| Cost | Free | Free |
When Ballotpedia is the right choice
Honestly, most of the time. If your question is anything other than "what is happening in the 2026 federal and gubernatorial races right now," start with Ballotpedia. It is the better tool for:
- Local races. City councils, school boards, county offices, and special districts. We do not cover these at all; Ballotpedia covers them in remarkable detail.
- Candidate biographies. Backgrounds, career histories, survey responses, and sourced profiles for candidates at every level.
- Ballot measures. Full text, supporting and opposing arguments, campaign finance, and the history of similar measures. This is one of Ballotpedia's deepest areas.
- Judicial elections and appointments. A layer of the ballot most sites skip entirely.
- Anything before 2026. Historical results, past cycles, and how a seat has voted over time.
- Policy context. Neutral explainers on election administration, state law, and public policy.
If you are a student, a journalist, a researcher, or a voter who wants to understand everything on your ballot including the local lines, Ballotpedia is the reference. That is what an encyclopedia is for.
When a focused 2026 tracker helps
What's On My Ballot earns its place in a narrower situation: you already know the basics and you want to follow the 2026 midterms as a live event. That looks like:
- Checking each morning whether any Senate or governor race ratings moved, and why.
- Playing out scenarios on the election map: "if these three seats flip, who controls the Senate?"
- Watching primary results land state by state without digging through separate pages.
- Getting one short daily email instead of monitoring several sites yourself.
A reasonable way to think about it: use Ballotpedia to research everything; use What's On My Ballot to follow the 2026 cycle day by day. The encyclopedia tells you who a candidate is and how their state has voted for decades. The tracker tells you whether their race got more or less competitive since yesterday. Those are different jobs, and many of our readers keep both sites open through November.
One more honest note on trust. Because this is civic information, sourcing matters. Our ratings are built from public polling, official filings, and reported results, and our poll tracker shows the underlying numbers so you can check our work. When you want the full background behind any race we rate, the candidate pages on Ballotpedia are where we would send you first. A rating is only useful if you understand who is actually running, and that context is their specialty, not ours.
Frequently asked questions
Is Ballotpedia free?
Yes. Ballotpedia is a nonprofit and its encyclopedia is free to read. It is funded primarily by donations and grants rather than subscriptions or paywalls.
What is a good companion to Ballotpedia for the 2026 midterms?
A focused cycle tracker. What's On My Ballot provides daily-updated 2026 race ratings, an interactive map with what-if flipping, primary results, and a single daily email through Election Day, all free. It complements deep Ballotpedia research rather than replacing it.
Is What's On My Ballot affiliated with Ballotpedia?
No. We are fully independent, with no connection to Ballotpedia or the Lucy Burns Institute. We link to them because they are the reference standard for American political information, and we think you should use them.
The bottom line
Ballotpedia is the encyclopedia; we are the scoreboard. If you need depth, breadth, local coverage, or history, go to ballotpedia.org. If you want a fast, free, nonpartisan read on where the 2026 midterms stand today, start with our election map, check the primary results, or look up what's on your own ballot. Better yet, do what we do: use both.