How DahVote Works
DahVote is built on a simple principle: if you’re going to publish information about people and institutions, you should be transparent about where that information comes from, how confident you are in it, and what you do when you’re not sure.
This page explains exactly how we research, verify, and maintain every record on this site.
Our Sources
We use a four-tier source system. Every record on DahVote is tagged with the tier of its primary source so you can evaluate the information for yourself.
Tier A — Official Primary Documents Appointment notices, official government websites, signed government documents, official press releases, and legislative records. These are the strongest sources. When a Tier A source is available, it takes precedence over everything else.
Tier B — Reputable News and Public Records Reporting from the Virgin Islands’ established news outlets — including the V.I. Source, V.I. Consortium, and the Virgin Islands Daily News — as well as recorded public meetings and legislative transcripts. These are strong sources, particularly when they report directly from official proceedings.
Tier C — Secondary Sources Secondary reporting, unofficial bios, third-party directories, and other published references that are credible but not primary. Useful for leads and context, but not sufficient on their own for high-confidence records.
Tier D — Unverified Social media posts, unattributed claims, and other information that has not been independently confirmed. Tier D sources are used only as leads for further verification. They are never the sole basis for a published record.
Confidence Scoring
Every record on DahVote receives a confidence score from 0 to 100, computed from the source tier, the freshness of the verification, and whether multiple independent sources agree.
The scoring works like this:
- Every record starts with a base score of 50.
- A Tier A source adds 30 points. Tier B adds 20. Tier C adds 10. Tier D adds nothing.
- Freshness matters: a record verified within the last 30 days gets 15 additional points. 31–90 days: 10 points. 91–180 days: 5 points. Over a year: minus 10 points.
- Each additional independent source that agrees adds 10 points, up to a maximum of 20 additional points.
- If sources actively conflict with each other, the score is capped at 49 and the record is labeled “Conflicted” until the disagreement is resolved.
Scores translate to verification levels:
- 80–100: Verified. Strong source, recently confirmed, no conflicting information.
- 60–79: Likely. Good source or multiple agreeing sources, but may not be the freshest confirmation.
- 0–59: Unconfirmed. Insufficient sourcing, outdated verification, or unresolved conflict between sources.
When a record is labeled “Conflicted,” it means we found credible sources that disagree. We do not guess which source is correct. We note the disagreement, show both sources, and attempt to resolve it through a higher-tier source.
Contact Information
Phone numbers and email addresses are treated as a separate verification layer from personnel information. A person may hold a confirmed position, but their listed phone number may be outdated. Contact details are dated independently so you can see when they were last confirmed.
When contact information cannot be verified through an official source, it is labeled accordingly. When contact information is confirmed to be wrong — a disconnected number, a reassigned email — it is removed promptly rather than left on the site to mislead. We would rather show no phone number than a wrong one.
What We Don’t Do
DahVote does not editorialize. A record that says someone holds a position is not an endorsement or a criticism. A vacant position listed as “Unknown” is not an accusation. A record labeled “Conflicted” is not an allegation — it means our sources disagree and we are being honest about that disagreement rather than picking a side.
We do not publish speculation as fact. We do not imply wrongdoing from a staffing change. We do not guess. If we don’t know, we say we don’t know.
Corrections
We expect to get things wrong sometimes. Government personnel change. Phone numbers are reassigned. Agencies reorganize. The point is not to be perfect — it is to be transparent, to fix errors quickly, and to show our work.
If you find an error on this site, use the Submit a Correction page or email corrections@dahvote.com. We ask that you include a source when possible — a link, a document, a reference we can verify. All corrections are reviewed and, when confirmed, applied to the site and documented in the Change Log.
Limitation
DahVote is an independent civic resource. It is not an official government directory and is not affiliated with the Government of the U.S. Virgin Islands or any federal agency. While we make every effort to ensure accuracy, we cannot guarantee that all information is current or error-free at any given moment. For official government business, election registration, and time-sensitive matters, we encourage users to verify information directly with the relevant government agency or at vivote.gov.