About Page Claiming
LegiStorm makes it easy for the people who appear on our site to claim their own page and submit changes, corrections, additional social media links or biographical details and photos.
To claim your page:
- You must be a registered user and logged in.
- At the top of your profile page, click "Claim this page to update."
- If you no longer have access to the email account you originally registered with, please provide an alternate email address to receive messages from us about your page claim.
- We also provide a Notes field so you can provide additional information to LegiStorm if needed to support your claim. We must be able to verify that you are the person on this page so if it's not obvious, we strongly encourage you also to include a note to help prove that this email belongs to you.
- We recommend you add claims@legistorm.com and congress@legistorm.com to your email address book to avoid emails from LegiStorm about your page claim mistakenly being marked as spam.
After your page claim is submitted, check your email for an automated message asking you to click a link to prove you have access to this email account. If the message hasn’t arrived after a few minutes, check your spam folder.
After you click the link to confirm, LegiStorm will review your page claim and notify you by email whether it has been accepted or rejected within two business days. If your page claim is accepted, you may then supply us with any additional biographical details you would like us to consider adding to your profile. You also may submit a business-appropriate photograph.
FAQs About "Claim This Page"
Who can claim a page?
A person may claim their own page. No one may claim anyone else’s page but their own. LegiStorm reviews every claim we receive to ensure the claimant and the person profiled are the same person.
How do I claim my page?
Any registered site user can claim their personal page by clicking the “Claim this page to update” link at the top of their profile page.
If you do not already have an account on our website, you will be prompted to register for free. We recommend using an official email account with an organizational domain (such as name@company.com) to make the verification process easier. Otherwise, if you choose to use a non-official, university or generic email account such as gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc. we may need to contact you for additional information in order to verify your claim.
How does LegiStorm verify the person claiming the page is the correct person?
LegiStorm uses multi-stage validation to ensure the person claiming a page is the correct person. We also may contact a claimant directly for additional information to ensure they are the person they claim to be.
What information can I change or add to my page once I claim it?
If any of the biographical details on your profile page are wrong or incomplete, you may submit changes and corrections by clicking the Edit links on your claimed page.
Your suggested changes will be reviewed by a LegiStorm editor. We also invite you to provide additional information for inclusion on your profile. The information LegiStorm provides on profile pages includes:
• names (full, middle, maiden, married and/or preferred names)
• dates and places of birth
• hometowns
• marital status, anniversary dates and spouses and children’s names
• educational attainment, credentials, certifications and degrees with details including degree type, awarding institution, dates attended, major/minor courses of study, concentrations or emphases, membership organizations, honor societies, Greek affiliations, sports and athletic activities and student activities
• religious affiliations
• social media links
• current and former employment information like organization name, job title, start and end dates – on and off the Hill
• military service and military awards
• fellowships, internships and volunteer activities
• organization memberships, affiliations and activities
• honors and awards
• hobbies and activities
• foreign language proficiencies
• areas of professional expertise
• books authored and other publications
• photos
How long does it take changes or new information to appear on my profile page?
When you use the Claim This Page interface to submit information to LegiStorm, your submission is reviewed by the LegiStorm editorial staff who will then accept or reject the proposed changes. You will receive an email from us within a business day or two accepting or rejecting the submission.
What are the criteria LegiStorm uses to accept or reject information I supply?
If the information a page claimant supplies does not fit into any of the categories bulleted above we may reject it. Additionally, any information supplied will be edited to conform to LegiStorm’s style standards.
How can I remove information from my profile after I claim it?
LegiStorm considers each request for information removal on a case-by-case basis. We will remove information and/or social media links if they are incorrect – for example, if a Twitter link on a profile page actually belongs to a different person with the same name. In most cases, if the information is correct, we will not remove it. Our goal is to provide the most complete and accurate information possible.
Congressional salary records, personal financial disclosures, privately funded travel forms and lobbyist registrations are public records. We will not remove these from a profile page.
How long will I have access to my page after I claim it?
You will continue to have access to a page you have claimed as long as you are using the same user login information.
