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Public records, put in context
Paper Trail Politics brings scattered campaign-finance filings and civic records together so you can see who is involved, follow the money, and understand the decisions that affect your community.
The starting point
Explore reported contributions, expenditures, loans, independent spending, and filing history, always connected to the original public record.
County race
Amounts reflect records in the current proof-of-concept dataset and should be read with the filing notes and methodology on each page.
Find your government
Your address may connect you to a county, city or community, school district, special districts, and overlapping state and federal representation. The office explorer makes those layers easier to see and compare.
Beyond availability
Access to public data can vary widely from one jurisdiction to another. Paper Trail Politics’ scorecards will compare how timely, searchable, downloadable, documented, and preserved that information is. The scores will go beyond whether a portal simply exists, allowing people to see where access is stronger and what could improve transparency elsewhere.
Preview of the criteria that will support government and filing-system assessments.
Illustrative layout only. These are not published scores.
Learn the system
Short videos, interviews, and guides will connect directly to the records and pages where they are most useful.
Visit the Learn pageWalk through the summary page and Schedules A, E, D, and I. Explain what each section reports, how the totals relate, and what the form can and cannot tell us.
Trace one Riverside contribution through the committee, contributor, filing period, original PDF page, Paper Trail Politics entity page, and related race page.
Explain late contributions versus late independent expenditures, who files each form, what “support” and “oppose” mean, and how Paper Trail Politics avoids double-counting activity later reported on Form 460.
The paper trail is bigger than elections
Each future section will connect to the same people, organizations, governments, places, and source records.
Agencies, commissions, appointments, oversight, funding relationships, and Civic Jenga.
Bills, committees, votes, hearings, calendars, official video, and legislative records.
Registered lobbyists, clients, reported activity, issues, payments, and governmental actions.
About Paper Trail Politics
Paper Trail Politics is a website designed to turn scattered government records into civic information people can understand and use. We identify the agencies, filing systems, and records behind the information, link to original sources whenever possible, and explain how the data was collected and presented.
Read about our mission and methodsPublic information stays public.
Corrections are part of the work. For this first public version, possible errors can be identified from the relevant data page. A sitewide submission form and voice or text hotline are planned.