Guides
The Ledger is free and open. Start with the citizen walkthrough, then open the student, reporter, or tools guide for the caveats that help most, without turning the public record into homework answers or wire copy.
Start here
A short citizen walkthrough of the five shelves, with scope notes before you open explorers.
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Students
Coursework, citations, definitions, and how to keep fiscal years and election cycles from getting mixed.
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Reporters
Freshness checks, shelf map for story types, attribution, and when live Race tallies are unofficial.
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Tools
Machine entry points: llms.txt, the downloads manifest, product JSON, and live map API notes.
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Sitewide rules for reuse and privacy live in usage and privacy. Methodology and integrity stay the technical companions for every audience.