Google Civic Information Api Turndown

[dinesh vino]

Hey folks... since the Google Civic Information API is being shut down, has anyone found a better alternative?

[Jeff Pierce]

Some thoughts for the community, just my own personal observations.

DEFINED PROBLEM: Where can (usually non-profits) find good Federal and State level information - list of districts, list of all elected officials, issues tracking?

SCALE: Small users (hundreds to low thousands a month) vs Large users (tens or hundreds of thousands)

DATA TYPES:
Raw Data - access to bulk data
API - access to APIs

SOLUTIONS:

This is just a personal list of companies/organizations I suggest one investigates for their needs. You have to confirm data access costs, if any, and the licensing for your use. I suspect people at these organizations are probably on this group - apologies for any mistakes, feel free to correct !

1) govtrack.us - great for federal, granddaddy of them all for federal open data. Joshua Tauberer (https://joshdata.me/ ) created it, for those who don't know his pedigree. Josh recently raising small donations to start up a service to track Trump's executive orders....

2) OpenStates  at  https://open.pluralpolicy.com/ - original project now run by very helpful company. Best source of free state level data for districts and officials. Issue tracking options in their product line. Plural is great steward of this important project.

3) Ballotpedia - They have comprehensive data on current federal and state data and issues, but is a very reasonable paid service to help them get revenue to support their important work for our democracy. Fees are not outrageous, and anyone at volume will find them a good option to consider.

4) GitHub - If you Google / Bing for raw data on Github, you will find GitHub repositories of federal and state district and officials data. It's frequency and availability of update can vary, so read documentation and check carefully.

5) geocod.io - excellent for geocoding , such as address matching user to a Federal or State district, has federal contact data. Excellent geocoding, free tier + affordable tiers.  A favorite of mine. UX for the website is one of the best in general for web UX. Only minus is no state officials data.

6) mapbox.com - also for geocoding work. 

7) Voting stuff - have some options.  voteamerica.com , vote.org, votesmart.org, and ballotready.org.  There are various paid services available.

8) legiscan.com - alternative for bill tracking. Also powers billtrack50.com . Probably paid service for any organization, seems affordable if this is kind of information you need.

Best,
Jeff AT votelight DOT com

[dinesh vino]

Hey Jeff Pierce,

Thanks for the info—it was really helpful! I was thinking of using  geocod.io  along with Plural Policy to get information on elected officials. However, these services lack some details, such as local officials' information.

By any chance, do you know of any API service that provides local or county officials' details?

Thanks!

[Aviva Rosman]

Hi Dinesh, 

BallotReady provides local officeholder data, down to the county, municipal, and school board level. Reach out if you would like to learn more! 

Aviva

Aviva Rosman ● COO

BallotReady

m. 617.721.2455 | e. av...@ballotready.org

w. ballotready.org

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[dinesh vino]

Hi Aviva,

Thanks for your response! We will check out your services.

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