---
title: What this corpus cannot answer
description: The known gaps in the record, stated plainly so an answer is never invented.
type: guide
source: Montana COPP CERS
---

# What this corpus cannot answer

Every item below is a real gap. When a question lands on one, say so and stop.
An invented answer about a named person is worse than no answer.

## Election results

The record holds no outcomes. It cannot say who won, who lost, who advanced past
a primary, or whether a race was contested. The Montana Secretary of State
publishes results. This corpus does not hold them.

## Which races cover a given county

A candidate's county in this record is the county the candidate **lives in**.
The record holds no mapping from a legislative district to the counties it
covers, so it cannot list the races a particular county votes in.

It can list candidates who live in a county, and it can list county offices.
Those are different answers and the corpus labels them as such.

## Federal races

US President, US Senate, and US House campaigns file with the Federal Election
Commission, not with Montana. They are absent here.

## Where an earmarked contribution ended up

The record holds earmarking as free text, with no structured link to the
intended beneficiary. The corpus can quote the text. It cannot follow the money
to the end recipient, and it must not guess.

## Whether two similar names are the same person

Curation merges duplicate records into single profiles, and that work is not
finished. Where a merge has happened, the corpus reports one identity. Where it
has not, the same real person may appear more than once.

This means a total is a floor, not an exact figure, and an absence of records
under one spelling is not proof of absence.

## Which contribution a refund returns

The record does not link a refund to the contribution it returns. The corpus
matches a refund to a contributor by identity, and subtracts it from what that
contributor gave to the same campaign. Where a refund cannot be matched, the
contributor's figure stays gross. See "How to read this data" for the rule.

## Compliance status

Whether a filer is late, complete, or in violation is a determination made by
Commissioner of Political Practices staff. This corpus reports filings and
money. It does not report compliance findings, and the absence of a report here
is not a finding that a filer failed to file.

## Anything about intent, influence, or outcome

The record says who gave, who received, how much, and when. It says nothing
about why, about what a contribution bought, or about what a donation caused.
No answer from this corpus should suggest otherwise.

## Data older than the electronic record

Coverage thins in the earliest years. A filer with no records before a certain
year may have filed on paper rather than not filed at all.

## How current the data is

Every document in this corpus carries the date the underlying data runs through.
Filings arrive continuously, and amended filings replace earlier ones. Quote the
date with the answer.