Independent and Nonpartisan
About us
Money Behind the Ballot is an independent, nonpartisan student organization. We take public campaign finance filings and public vote records—documents already open to anyone, but written so that almost nobody can read them—and turn them into something a person can actually use before they vote.
We do not tell you who to vote for. We think you will decide that better with the receipts in front of you.
What we hold ourselves to
Every number is traceable
Each profile links to the Federal Election Commission filings its figures come from, so you can check us against the primary source. If we cannot source a figure, we do not publish it.
Written to be understood
We aim for a ninth-grade reading level, and every chart carries a plain-English caption. Complexity in the filings is not an excuse for complexity here.
No money from the people we cover
We accept nothing from candidates, parties, PACs, or lobbying firms. Right now the site has no funding at all, and if that changes we will say so on this page.
We publish our mistakes
Corrections are posted at the top of the affected page and stay there. We do not quietly edit.
Who runs this
Money Behind the Ballot is an independent student-led organization. It was founded and is run by Bassel Obeidat, a student in Wisconsin.
I started Money Behind the Ballot because I wanted to understand where the money behind our politicians actually comes from.
As I became more interested in politics, I started looking beyond what candidates said and wanted to understand the bigger picture. Who was supporting them? Where was their campaign money coming from? Who were their biggest donors?
When I tried to find those answers, I realized that the information was out there, but it wasn’t easy to understand. I had to look through different databases and sources just to piece together a picture that should be much easier to find.
That made me think: if it was difficult for me to figure this out, how many other people simply don’t have the time or don't know where to look?
So I built Money Behind the Ballot to make that information easier to see. The goal isn’t to tell anyone what to think or who to vote for. It’s to put the information in one place so people can look at it for themselves and make their own conclusions.
Understanding our political system shouldn’t require hours of digging through complicated databases. People deserve to know what's behind the ballot they're casting.
We are not funded by anyone. The site is built and maintained by students in their own time, and it costs little more than a domain name to run. We accept no money from candidates, parties, PACs, or lobbying firms, and if that ever changes, our funding sources will be listed on this page.
What this data can and cannot tell you
A donation is not proof of a favor, and a vote that matches a donor is not proof the donor bought it. Plenty of groups give money to politicians who already agree with them. What the filings and vote records show is a pattern of relationships—who funds whom, and how the votes line up. What you make of that pattern is up to you.
We also cannot show you everything. Some political spending is legally permitted to stay anonymous, and it appears in no filing at all. Where that is likely to matter, we say so on the page.