Errors in v2 of the Google Civic Information API are mapped to HTTP Status codes. The following
table lists each error and provides a description of the error. Each error response contains a
reason element for the error. In some cases, similar errors may be mapped to the same
HTTP Status Code and the same reason element. These cases can further be distinguished
for debugging purposes by the message element. We advise against writing code that
inspects the message element in the error response.
The API may also return standard Google API errors. Those error descriptions are available on the Standard Errors page.
Additional errors may be added in the future. Any new errors will be announced to the API forum.
Error Table
reason |
HTTP Status Code | message |
Description |
|---|---|---|---|
parseError |
400 |
Failed to parse address | The address sent to the API was not parseable. This may happen if the address is not completely specified. |
required |
400 |
No address provided | An address must be specified for this request. |
invalidValue |
400 |
Election unknown | The election that was requested is unknown. This may be because the requested election ID is invalid. This may also happen for requests without an election id specified if there is no data available for the provided address. |
invalidQuery |
400 |
Election is over | The requested is election is over. Data is no longer available for this election. |
unauthorized |
401 |
The request was not appropriately authorized. | |
limitExceeded |
403 |
Too many OCD IDs retrieved | The recursive request required processing too many divisions. Try applying additional filters and/or using a more constrained OCD ID. In some cases it may be necessary to do a non-recursive lookup followed by multiple recursive lookups on the smaller divisions that were returned. |
notFound |
404 |
No information for this address | The API does not have any information for this address. This may be because the address is not a US residential address. Another reason for this error is if there is no election data for this address. |
conflict |
409 |
Conflicting information for this address | Conflicting information was found for this address. Currently unused. |
backendError |
503 |
The API is experienced a problem responding to the request. These types of errors can be retried. |