A St. Petersburg woman is suing Ballotpedia, the well-known online encyclopedia of American politics and elections, alleging the nonprofit unlawfully withheld overtime pay from its staff writers as part of a nationwide scheme to cut labor costs.
Jaclyn Mitchell, a former Ballotpedia staff writer who worked remotely from Pinellas County, filed the collective action complaint July 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
The lawsuit claims the organization misclassified her and other staff writers as exempt from federal overtime protections, failing to pay premium wages for work exceeding 40 hours per week.
Court Watch first flagged the lawsuit Friday.
Mitchell says Ballotpedia, which operates under its legal name, The Lucy Burns Institute, “willfully failed to pay overtime wages” and maintained policies that discouraged employees from tracking their hours while pushing them to work past their standard schedules to meet deadlines.
She worked for Ballotpedia from March 2018 to June 2, 2025. Over that stretch, Mitchell says she and others routinely worked overtime without proper compensation.
She is seeking back pay, liquidated damages and attorneys’ fees for herself and a group of similarly situated current and former staff writers at Ballotpedia.
Ballotpedia is a nonprofit, nonpartisan digital encyclopedia that covers U.S. politics and elections. Based in Wisconsin, The Lucy Burns Institute says its mission is to provide “relevant, reliable, and available” information to voters on all levels of government.
The site is widely used by journalists, researchers, educators and the public for detailed coverage of candidates, ballot measures, court cases and policy issues.
Mitchell’s lawsuit references Florida’s long arm statute, outlined in Florida Statute 48.193, which enables Florida courts to assert jurisdiction over non-resident defendants under certain conditions and allow lawsuits against them even if they don’t reside in the state.
Florida is also relevant to the case, the suit contends, claiming Ballotpedia’s “actions of hiring a Florida resident demonstrates a purpose to avail themselves of Florida’s employment market and Florida’s laws.”
Mitchell, 37, claims Ballotpedia has no legitimate basis for classifying its staff writers as exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Her lawsuit also accuses the organization of creating a national pay scheme that deprived employees of overtime wages, despite assigning workloads that regularly demanded work exceeding 40 hours per week.
“Staff Writers were purposefully misled by (Ballotpedia) to believe they were lawfully classified as exempt,” the complaint says, arguing that the job’s primary duties — researching and paraphrasing content within strict editorial templates — do not meet the legal standards for exemption under federal labor laws.
The suit also contends Ballotpedia failed to provide staff with any system for reporting or clocking hours, violating federal recordkeeping requirements and leaving the burden of estimating overtime hours to the employees themselves.
Mitchell is represented by Mitchell Feldman, a Tampa-based employment lawyer. He is seeking to certify the case as a collective action and has invited other Ballotpedia staff writers from the past three years to join the lawsuit.
Florida Politics contacted Ballotpedia’s media relations department for comment and received an automated response. This report will be updated upon receipt of a response addressing the lawsuit.
The case, Mitchell v. The Lucy Burns Institute, Inc. d/b/a Ballotpedia, has been assigned to Judge Thomas Barber, who was appointed to the bench by former Gov. Jeb Bush, elevated to the 13th Judicial Circuit by former Gov. Charlie Crist and nominated to the Middle District by President Donald Trump.
The court issued a summons Monday to The Lucy Burns Institute.
Mitchell is demanding a jury trial.
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