About

Why this exists

Public life is full of contested questions. Too often the loudest voices win—not the clearest record.

Trace the Evidence exists to put claims next to evidence: what can be measured, what remains disputed, and where honest people still disagree because the data does not settle the matter.

The hope is simple. If readers can see the strongest case on each side, and the sources behind those cases, they are more likely to arrive at sound conclusions themselves—and less likely to feel that a conclusion was imposed on them.

Editorial posture

We prefer primary government statistics, peer-reviewed research, and transparent methodologies. Advocacy groups appear when they publish widely cited estimates—with their incentives noted. Where federal and state books diverge from advocacy tallies, we show both and explain the difference in scope.

Editing the site

Content lives as structured data and pages in the GitHub repository. Updates ship through ordinary pull requests and Netlify deploys—no CMS required for the first version.