INC 2026 CIVIC PAMPHLET
The Atlas 8 · Current Common-Ground Core
These are OBI's current research-supported common-ground propositions, not a claim of universal consensus. Direct organizational validation is the next step.
OPEN BALLOT INSTITUTE
Before ideas can compete,
candidates must be able to compete.
No policy, platform, or movement can reach the American people if qualified candidates cannot first reach the ballot.
THE LAUNCH FILM
THE SCALE-AND-PRECISION PROBLEM
The Million-Restaurant Problem
Imagine a restaurant chain with millions of locations. Every location has a different menu, different ingredients, different health code, different deadlines, and a different kitchen authority. Every meal still has to come out correctly — every single time. And, by the way, the menu at any location can change at any time. That is the scale-and-precision problem OBI is solving for ballot access.
WHAT OBI IS BUILDING
Make the path understandable.
Open Ballot Institute is building a free, open, national civic institution devoted to making the path to the ballot easier to navigate and easier to understand.
Our mission is simple: every qualified candidate who follows the rules should be able to understand the path to the ballot and every voter should have a fairer chance to hear from them.
RESEARCH IN MOTION
See the work.
GENERATIONAL THINKING
Beyond the Next Cycle
A working strategy for movement-leader consideration: think in decades and generations, not only in election cycles.
CANDIDATE PACKETS
Millions of possible packet combinations.
OBI has built a governed production system capable of assembling candidate-facing ballot-access packets across every state and for virtually every office and route in the country — combining jurisdiction, office, election cycle, candidate path, requirements, deadlines, filing authorities, forms, sources, and evidence into usable candidate guidance.
See example packet New York Governor · 2026 · Independent
EXAMPLE PACKET
New York Governor 2026
WHERE WE ARE HEADING
A National-Scale Public Institution.
Candidate packets are the first operating expression of a larger institution: free and open civic infrastructure, research, public tools, and institutional memory built to outlast any candidate or election.
Every cycle should leave behind more than it consumes.
Research. Public tools. Institutional memory. Free and open for generations to come.