GIS Analyst Summer 2024 Internship (Paid/Remote)

Intern Testimonials

"My internship experience at Ballotpedia was nothing short of exceptional. Working alongside a team of passionate and talented individuals, I felt like an integral part of the organization from day one. The collaborative atmosphere and the focus on personal development allowed me to learn and grow as a data engineer. I was impressed by the commitment to transparency and the meaningful impact Ballotpedia makes in promoting civic engagement. The experience not only enriched my technical skills but also instilled in me a deeper appreciation for the democratic process. I am grateful for the opportunities provided and would wholeheartedly recommend Ballotpedia as an outstanding place to work and contribute to a vital cause." - Abhishek Verma, Fall 2023 Data Engineering Intern

“Ballotpedia is an excellent place to work. You will be encouraged to grow and learn, and be given the freedom to explore new territories.” - Noah Pedroso, Spring 2023 Data Engineering Intern

"Working as a tech intern at Ballotpedia is one of the highlights of my year. It’s challenging, but I’ve been afforded the opportunity to work with some of the most professional and courteous staff members I’ve ever met. It's an excellent opportunity to learn about database structure and management, web design and even digital map drawing. The experience to be gained from working at Ballotpedia is invaluable for a multitude of careers ranging from IT and software development to database administration." — Eric Huang, 2019 Fall/2020 Spring/Summer 2020 Intern

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 work closely with the Tech Team. You will meet one-on-one weekly with a member of the team to coordinate your tasks. Additionally, there will be some other specific training calls as necessary depending on which projects you work on.

In addition to your onboarding experience, and the experience you will develop working in your assigned area, you will also have the opportunity to attend topical meetings or webinars.

As a Ballotpedia Tech Team GIS Analyst intern, your primary job is to research and format shapefiles for political boundaries. Ballotpedia's sample ballot lookup app <https://ballotpedia.org/Sample_Ballot_Lookup> allows voters to see upcoming elections for their address. This and other functionality will be powered by your work. 

This will involve:

• research to understand the legal requirements for who can vote in which types of elections
• sourcing maps through online research, outreach to government offices, or georeferencing to create new shapefiles
• testing and formatting the files to conform to Ballotpedia's database requirements
• working with the Ballotpedia database to add the boundaries and perform tests

Other GIS or database-oriented activities will be assigned based on skill, interest, and need.

Desirable experience for GIS Analyst intern:

• GIS (working with shapefiles, formatting, georeferencing) using tools such as ArcGIS or QGIS
• Research/data entry
• Some coding knowledge (Python, SQL) is a plus, but not required

Ballotpedia’s summer 2024 internship runs from Monday, June 3, 2024, through Friday, August 2, 2024. Ballotpedia’s summer 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 $16.00 per hour.

Please note: If the minimum wage in your area is more than $16.00 per hour, you will be compensated per your area’s minimum wage.

To Apply

Please attach the following in PDF format:

• résumé
• cover letter which states your interest in the GIS Analyst internship including:
  • a statement of what you hope to learn from this internship

Please ensure that either your resume or your cover letter includes your current address. Applications that do not include a current address will not be accepted.

If you are hired for this position, Ballotpedia participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, Ballotpedia is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you, including terminating your employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9. For more information on E-Verify, or if you believe that your employer has violated its E-Verify responsibilities, please contact DHS.

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.