Unlock election data with trusted, machine-readable feeds anyone can use—on election night and in the archives.
On election night, finding reliable data is a scavenger hunt. Clerks upload PDFs late into the night, unofficial statewide dashboards skip municipal questions, and community reporters wait hours for answers their neighbors expect in minutes. When official data is slow, inconsistent, or hidden in formats that only specialists can parse, misinformation fills the gap.
After elections, the problem continues. Historical data gets locked away in PDFs, scanned documents, or proprietary formats that make it nearly impossible to analyze trends, verify past results, or understand how voting patterns have changed over time. Researchers, journalists, and community groups waste countless hours manually extracting data that should be available in machine-readable formats.
We are pushing for machine-readable, well-documented feeds that include local referenda, school board races, and county questions—both in real-time and in permanent archives. Clear standards mean that every resident, newsroom, and community group can double-check tallies, compare turnout, analyze historical trends, and explain what happened without needing proprietary software. Ranked choice contests especially need accessible, trustworthy data so the public can follow complex rounds and understand past elections instead of relying on rumor or incomplete records.
Structured data pipelines publish municipal-level updates every few minutes on election night so voters do not have to chase screenshots or rumors when results are most needed.
Every dataset ships with metadata showing sources, timestamped revisions, and automated audit checks to prove accuracy.
Rounds, transfers, and exhausted ballots are published in plain language so communities can follow the full story, not just the final round.
Lightweight JSON and CSV endpoints keep small newsrooms, rural broadband users, and civic hackers connected without expensive tools.
Standardized schemas mean neighborhood groups can plug in, annotate, and share findings without code rewrites.
Historical election data stored in machine-readable formats means researchers, journalists, and community groups can analyze trends and verify past results without manual data entry.
We supply starter templates in Google Sheets and Airtable so two-person outlets can ingest election feeds, highlight precincts, and embed charts within minutes.
Neighborhood associations receive turnout alerts, downloadable histories from both current and past elections, and simple talking points that translate raw numbers into civic action.
Lesson-ready explainers demystify how votes flow through RCV, why trusted sources matter, how to spot gaps in unofficial social media tallies, and how to access and analyze historical election data for research and learning.
Partner with us to pilot faster local feeds, publish trusted ranked choice visualizations, convert historical archives to machine-readable formats, and train community organizations to work with election data.
Share Your NeedsHave questions about election data standards? Want to partner with us or share your organization's needs?
Contact us:
info@maineopendata.org
We're here to help make election data accessible for everyone in Maine.