Intern Testimonials
“Ballotpedia’s internship is a phenomenal way to get hands-on experience in learning more about American politics. The team is flexible and very supportive, open to hearing suggestions for new processes and implementing them. Team leads go above and beyond to answer questions, and are attentive to making the internship a better experience. While it’s 100% remote, Ballotpedia does a great job making you feel like you’re part of something bigger. The team is always looking to improve, and it shows. Would highly recommend!”- Nicholas Callaghan, Fall 2023 Editorial Intern
“Before joining the Ballotpedia internship program, I was under the impression I would only be working on editorial aspects of news articles. However, the work I do is far more than what I expected. I feel like I am part of every team that needs my assistance and viewpoints to ensure the quality of our work. Overall, it gave me a sense of being ready for anything and wanting to produce while learning new skill sets.” – Colin Han, Spring-Summer 2023 Editorial Intern
“Interning with Ballotpedia was a wonderful experience. I was guided and taught throughout various projects while also allowed to be creative and explore my own ideas and projects. I have learned not only about American politics, but meaningful ways to reach and educate people. It was an invaluable experience with great mentorship!” – Abigail Campbell, 2020 Communications Intern and current Communications Associate
“Interns at Ballotpedia have the rare opportunity to be engaged in politics in a fascinating behind-the-scenes way, working to build the Encyclopedia of American Politics- breaking news and documenting history- while maintaining complete neutrality. At BP, you’ll gain experience with a multitude of tasks to prepare you for any avenue you decide to take in the crazy, fun world of politics and news.” – Jackie Mitchell, 2018 Spring Intern and current Ballotpedia Staff Writer
“Participating in the editorial internship program was an exceptional learning experience that prepared me for my current role as a staff writer. Through the internship, I received extensive training on preventing bias, learned how to code the website, and worked on challenging projects, all with the support of helpful and encouraging Ballotpedia staff.” – Janie Valentine, 2019 Spring Intern and current Marquee Team Lead
Program Description
As an intern, you will go through a similar onboarding experience to full-time Ballotpedia employees. You will learn how to code the Ballotpedia website, be oriented to Ballotpedia’s style guide, learn about what we do to prevent and detect bias in our resources, and much more. Following orientation, you will join either the Communications, Editorial, External Relations or Tech teams, working alongside full-time staff members.
As a Ballotpedia Editorial intern, you may:
- be embedded in one of our Editorial teams (i.e. Ballots, Elections, Marquee or News, Quality Assurance) and work directly with Editorial staff members;
- work on articles on candidates and elections;
- write about Federal, State, or Local elections, depending upon your assignment;
- assist our teams in news tracking and monitoring;
- research candidate stances and biographies;
- research election results and input them into our database;
- research race expenditures;
- research race endorsements;
- process candidate surveys;
- conduct research projects to improve overall data quality
- participate in brainstorming sessions with experienced staff members; and
- write and research on other topics as assigned.
As a Ballotpedia Communications intern, you may:
- assist with Ballotpedia’s social media including creating posts and graphics;
- assist with Ballotpedia’s various email products, from daily and weekly newsletters to special campaigns;
- respond to communications from a variety of external sources;
- assist in coordinating and completing webinars, briefings, or similar group events; and
- collect a variety of data points, tracking subscribers, engagement, and more
- help develop compelling presentations, infographics and reports
- monitor and report on media mentions
- participate in special research projects
- participate in promotional planning and activities
Ballotpedia’s Tech and External Relations Departments also offer internship opportunities. You can find more information on how to become a Tech or External Relations intern on our Job Opportunities page.
Ballotpedia’s Spring 2024 internship runs from Monday, January 8, 2024 to Friday, May 3, 2024. Ballotpedia’s spring internship is a part-time internship program; interns will work approximately 10-20 hours per week depending on their availability.
Ballotpedia is happy to facilitate credit for your internship experience if that is available to you. If you will be seeking credit for your internship, and if there is anything that Ballotpedia will need to do to assist you, please include that information in the same file as your cover letter.
Environment
Ballotpedia interns will work remotely, as all Ballotpedia staff work remotely. To join Ballotpedia, you must have a well-functioning computer with Internet access. Ballotpedia uses Google Applications (Gmail, Google Calendar, Drive and more) to accomplish our goals. Some familiarity with Google Applications is helpful.
Compensation
Interns will be compensated at $15.00 per hour.
Please note: If the minimum wage in your area is more than $15.00 per hour, you will be compensated in accordance with your area’s minimum wage.
To Apply
To apply, click on “Apply for this job” below and fill out the form.
Please provide the following in PDF format:
- résumé
- cover letter which states your area of preference (Editorial or Communications), including the contact information for two professional references
- neutral writing sample (under five pages)
Note: please include this in the same file as your cover letter
Please ensure that either your resume or your cover letter include your current address. Applications that do not include a current address will not be accepted.
About Ballotpedia
Ballotpedia is a collaborative team of fast learners and creative problem solvers who are eager to work hard to make the world a better place. We believe the world will be a better place if every citizen has access to information to make informed decisions about their vote in every election in which they are eligible to vote: primary, general, and special elections; federal, state, and local offices.
We work diligently to present the available information about elections, candidates, judges, ballot measures, policies, and more in a way that enables our readers to vote with confidence and to act as engaged citizens outside of the polling booth.
Ballotpedia readers, like Ballotpedia staff, are special people.
When we launched in 2007, we did not go out of our way to seek new readers. Starting with our small team of visionary idealists, nerds, and aspiring political journalists, we just wrote the best unbiased online articles we could, especially about ballot measures. Readers found those articles in droves. It turns out there was an unclaimed audience out there-people who wanted straightforward facts about political issues, and were willing to read at length instead of just scanning the headlines.
“If you build it, they will come:” our readers came to our neutral oasis in growing numbers; we’ve had many millions of lifetime pageviews, we reached nearly half of all voters in 2020, and, in the month surrounding the November 2020 election, we were the 77th most-visited website in the U.S.
We’ve come to realize that we need to meet our readers where they are. In doing so, over the past five years, we’ve grown our email newsletter program from infancy to include more than 3,000,000 opt-in subscribers with more than a dozen newsletters to choose from. We are working in numerous ways to help put our neutral information in front of people at the times when they most need it, including on mobile phones while you’re standing in the voting booth. We firmly believe that our readers, and the mindset we help them cultivate, are essential in a world where too many others are fighting to get us all addicted to sensational posts and the irrational decisions they foster.
If this is a mission you’d be willing to work hard to achieve, and if this is a team you’d be willing to work hard with-JOIN US.