Contradiction Flags in Candidate Research: Common Questions Answered

The opposition-research page defines a contradiction flag as a pointer between two sourced items that a reader might not notice if they live in different documents. A quote and a vote, two quotes from different years, or a disclosure and a later filing. The homepage says every candidate gets the same profile: votes, quotes, filings, and contradiction flags, each linked to the public record. This page answers the questions a desk asks before it treats a flag as a line someone can say out loud. The field manual is The Complete Guide to Evidence-Backed Opposition Research for Campaigns at /blog/the-complete-guide-to-evidence-backed-opposition-research-for-campaigns.

A flag is one step in a longer order. Claims still have to be checked before they reach a memo, which is /blog/how-to-verify-political-claims-before-they-reach-a-campaign-memo. Lining a roll call up against a public statement is /blog/how-to-check-a-candidates-voting-record-against-public-statements. The dossier that holds both sides is /blog/how-to-build-a-citation-backed-candidate-research-dossier. Which records exist depends on the office, mapped at /blog/9-types-of-race-specific-research-campaign-teams-need. The container for the file is compared at /blog/campaign-research-platform-vs-spreadsheets-which-workflow-holds-up.

What is a contradiction flag?

A flag connects two records. It is not a verdict written in the margin of one document. The opposition-research page names the pairs a desk actually meets: a quote and a vote, two quotes from different years, a disclosure and a later filing. The homepage lists contradiction flags beside votes, quotes, and filings, and it says each of those is linked to the public record. A flag that cannot point at both records is a label, not a finding.

Identity comes first, or the two items may belong to two people. The opposition-research page starts the file with the legal name, the office, the jurisdiction, the cycle, and anyone who shares the name. A Secretary of State filing or an FEC committee name is the anchor, because a ballot name and a committee name are often different strings. The methodology page deduplicates on legal name, jurisdiction, office, and filing identifiers, and it keeps a reliability score when two sources disagree. A flag built on a shared surname alone stays in the question log.

When is the flag useful?

The opposition-research page says the flag is useful when both items stay attached to it. A reader who has the quote in one folder and the vote in another can miss the pair. The flag is the pointer that puts them on the same page. Packaging for communications keeps the claim, the date, and the source, and it drops the dead ends. A comms-ready packet can carry the contradiction only if both sides are still on that page, so review can happen before anyone says the line out loud.

What if one side is missing?

A flag with one side missing is a prompt for more research. The opposition-research page says it should be labeled that way so a communicator does not treat an open question as a finished hit. A headline that says a candidate flip-flopped, with neither the vote nor the quote attached, is a draft sentence waiting for a source. The missing side might be a roll call the person never cast, a quote that was a newspaper summary rather than the candidate's words, or a filing that has not been opened yet.

An empty section is a valid result. The opposition-research page says a candidate who has never held office may have a voting record from a prior office, a local board, or no voting record at all, and the file should say which of those is true. A quote is the words that were said, with the date and the place. A newspaper summary, a staff recollection, or a clipped caption is someone else's description, and the file should label it that way. Where the record only opens a question, the methodology page uses posture language: may, could, would examine, and appears consistent with.

How should a vote and a later quote be read?

A vote and a later quote can agree, diverge, or talk about different bills that share a topic word. The opposition-research page says the file should say which of those three it is. Position change is a claim about two dated records, and both records belong in the note. The bill, the date, and the vote sit on one line. The statement, with its date and place, sits on the next. A shared topic word is not enough to call the pair a conflict.

The practical pass for that pairing is /blog/how-to-check-a-candidates-voting-record-against-public-statements. Finance can form the other side of a flag, and it has its own limit. A donor's gift documents a transaction reported by the committee. It does not, by itself, document what the candidate believes. If the file wants to set a gift next to a vote, it needs the gift, the vote, and a sentence that states only what those two records show. Amended reports replace earlier totals, so the current report is the one the flag cites. A personal financial disclosure is a different form from an FEC report.

What leaves with the communications packet?

The last step on the opposition-research page is shorter than the research. It keeps the claim, the date, and the source. OppIntell calls that export a comms-ready packet: the contradiction, the finance note, or the vote, with the source still on the page. Packaging is a selection of sourced lines. It is also the moment an unsourced line is easiest to add back, so the packet is checked against the file one more time.

Before that packet moves, the line still needs the check in /blog/how-to-verify-political-claims-before-they-reach-a-campaign-memo. On a published briefing, each claim carries a source URL and a source type. Named types include an FEC filing, a Secretary of State portal, a court record, an official campaign site, and a government press release. The methodology page names citation_validation_status: whether the cited document still exists at that URL and still contains the cited language. A claim that fails stays out until the source is re-resolved.