Ballotpedia:WikiProject Local Ballot Measures
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WikiProject Local Ballot Measures is about improving and organizing articles about local ballot measures.
This page will:
- Establish preferred categories
- A way to sort out local ballot measures by issue
- A way to organize local ballot measures within their state.
- WikiProject School Bond and Tax Elections is a subproject of this project.
Organizing articles by county
In California, local ballot measures are organized according to their county. This seems to work well. There are 58 counties in California, and correspondingly, 58 articles, each called a variant of El Dorado County, California ballot measures. These articles are organized into a template: {{California counties}}. We also have {{California election dates}} because there are so many of them.
Any specific local ballot measure is then added to the page for the county. This anchors your work and gives you a reliable archive you'll build over time.
The preferred title for a county-based article is "Sample County, Name of state ballot measures". The county template for the state in question should be included at the end of the article.
County templates
Here's a list of all the county templates:
- {{Alabama counties}} | {{Alaska boroughs}} | {{Arkansas counties}} | {{Arizona counties}} | {{California counties}} | {{Colorado counties}} | {{Connecticut counties}} | {{Delaware counties}} | {{Florida counties}} | {{Georgia counties}} | {{Hawaii counties}} | {{Idaho counties}} | {{Illinois counties}} | {{Indiana counties}} | {{Iowa counties}} | {{Kansas counties}} | {{Kentucky counties}} | {{Louisiana parishes}} | {{Maine counties}} | {{Maryland counties}} | {{Massachusetts counties}} | {{Michigan counties}} | {{Minnesota counties}} | {{Mississippi counties}} | {{Missouri counties}} | {{Montana counties}} | {{Nebraska counties}} | {{Nevada counties}} | {{New Hampshire counties}} | {{New Jersey counties}} | {{New Mexico counties}} | {{New York counties}} | {{North Carolina counties}} | {{North Dakota counties}} | {{Ohio counties}} | {{Oklahoma counties}} | {{Oregon counties}} | {{Pennsylvania counties}} | {{Rhode Island counties}} | {{South Carolina counties}} | {{South Dakota counties}} | {{Tennessee counties}} | {{Texas counties}} | {{Utah counties}} | {{Vermont counties}} | {{Virginia counties}} | {{Washington counties}} | {{West Virginia counties}} | {{Wisconsin counties}} | {{Wyoming counties}} |
Election link added
Please remove templates from this list to signify that all county articles for the state in question have had an external link added that takes the reader to the elections office for that county, is in this example.
- {{Georgia counties}} | {{Indiana counties}} | {{Louisiana parishes}} | {{Minnesota counties}} | {{Mississippi counties}} | {{North Dakota counties}} | {{Ohio counties}} | {{Oklahoma counties}} | {{South Dakota counties}} | {{Virginia counties}} | {{West Virginia counties}}
Existing articles added
Please remove templates from this list to signify that for the state in question, you've gone through all of BP's articles about local ballot measures in that state and added those links to the relevant "local ballot measures listed by county" and "local ballot measures listed by election date" articles that exist for that state.
- {{Alabama counties}} | {{Connecticut counties}} | {{Georgia counties}} | {{Hawaii counties}} | {{Indiana counties}} | {{Iowa counties}} | {{Kentucky counties}} | {{Louisiana parishes}} | {{Massachusetts counties}} | {{Minnesota counties}} | {{Mississippi counties}} | {{Missouri counties}} | {{Nevada counties}} | {{New Hampshire counties}} | {{New Jersey counties}} | {{New Mexico counties}} | {{North Dakota counties}} | {{Ohio counties}} | {{Oklahoma counties}} | {{Oregon counties}} | {{Pennsylvania counties}} | {{Rhode Island counties}} | {{South Dakota counties}} | {{Tennessee counties}} | {{Texas counties}} | {{Vermont counties}} | {{Virginia counties}} | {{West Virginia counties}} | {{Wisconsin counties}}
Writing articles
Title
- The title of the article should begin with the name of the city, county, school district or special district that is conducting the election. In the case of a school district or special taxing district that has a long name (for example, ending with "Unified School District") you don't necessarily have to include the full legal name of the school district in your article's title. However, you do need to include enough of the name of the school district for your readers to understand which school district you are talking about.
- If you are writing about a ballot measure that has already been given an identifying proposition number or name, such as "Proposition 2" or "Measure A", that should go in the title. If you are writing about a local ballot measure at a stage in its life where it does not yet have an official ballot name of that kind, be prepared to go back later and change the title of the article.
- Include words in your article's title to convey to the reader what the measure is about. Examples might be "school bond", "tax levy", "gas tax", "parcel tax", "hotel tax" or "sales tax".
- Here are some examples:
Introduction
The first sentence should be a straightforward recitation of the basic facts concerning the ballot measure. See the example at Clovis Sales Tax Increase, Measure A, 2009. You should name the ballot measure, identify the date when it will be or was voted on, and identify and wiki-link to the county whose election officials conducted the election. You should conclude by identifying who is or was eligible to vote on the measure ("for voters in the City of Clovis" or "voters in the Royal Oak Unified School District", etc.)
When mentioning the date, you should wiki-link either to the relevant month in Ballotpedia's calendar or to a specific article about that election date in your state if you have created such a specific article; for example, March 3, 2009 ballot measures in California.
Categories
State/year
- The primary category that each local ballot measure article should go in is a version of Category:Arizona 2009 local ballot measures.
- That category, in turn, becomes part of the parent categories Category:Local ballot measures, Arizona and Category:Local ballot measures, 2009
- Those categories, in turn, become part of their own parent categories.
- Category:Local ballot measures, 2009 goes into Category:Local ballot measures by year and Category:2009 ballot measures
- Category:Local ballot measures, Arizona goes into Category:Local ballot measures by state and Category:Arizona ballot measures.
Political topics
- Each local ballot measure article should be put into a category that has to do with its political topic.
- There is an entire page devoted to defining what categories to use: Help:Categories for local ballot measures
Needs fixing
Project templates
- {{lbm}} should be typed on the "talk" page for articles that are about local ballot measures.
- {{User WikiProject LBM}} can be added to your user page.
See also
| This page is part of WikiProject Local Ballot Measures, a WikiProject that exists in order to organize, expand and improve Ballotpedia's coverage of local ballot measures. |
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