A record number of women are running for office this primary season, which means there's a groundswell of energy around targeting female voters with campaign ads.

At one end of the spectrum, some candidates — largely Democrats — are highlighting their gender as something that makes them uniquely qualified. Here's how Krish Vignarajah, a candidate for governor of Maryland, made her appeal before ultimately losing in this week's primary:

And then there are those in this new wave of women candidates who are positioning themselves as tough enough to withstand any obstacle Washington may throw at them, like the Republican Senate hopeful from Arizona, Martha McSally.

What these ads have in common: they were broadcast on television. We have no idea how widespread this messaging is on Facebook, or how individual voters are being targeted. Nor do we know about potentially unethical or misleading advertising that may be happening. We do know from the Cambridge Analytica scandal that much of the misinformation spread in 2016 targeted people based on their race and gender. And we know that this is an election in which gender is expected to be a decisive factor.

But there’s no formal way to oversee the messaging on social media. There are laws and regulations and tracking mechanisms for the ads we see on television. But on Facebook, where ads are microtargeted, it’s still the Wild West. A PAC wanting to have an impact on an election in New Jersey can deliver very different messages to voters who may live next door to each other.

Recently, Facebook made political advertisers verify who they are and who's paying for their ads. But because these ads are very specifically targeted to certain demographics, it's hard to even know what's out there. 

So that's where you come in. WNYC is partnering with ProPublica, which developed a simple browser extension you can download that will scrape all the political ads in your Facebook newsfeed and add them to a public database. Rest assured, this tool will not collect any personally identifying information — just the ads. By doing this, you'll be part of groundbreaking research — remember this is the first election cycle since Facebook changed its policies. And you'll also be helping WNYC and ProPublica bring you reporting and analysis about these campaign ads. To get started, visit propublica.org/facebook.

United States of Anxiety host Kai Wright spoke about the project with WNYC's Kerry Nolan.