This developer site provides best practices for the creation of a Civics Data Format (CDF) feed. It contains a Unified Modeling Language (UML) model of election and officeholder data and an XML format derived from the UML model. It also contains background information about how political geography is structured and used as it relates to elections and election results. The data model is comprehensive and at the same time very flexible, able to accommodate pre-election, election, and post-election scenarios.
The following are the significant features of this specification:
- Defines major data elements, their attributes, and their associations in a UML data model.
- Lets you use the data model to generate supported data formats such as XML.
- Lets you report aggregated or detailed election data and results, as well as officeholder data.
- Supports multiple types of identifiers and cross-references.
This site is intended for partner organizations who provide Google with data to support our search features for officeholder and election results. Partners need to follow the guidelines given here along with the Civics CDF Validator and the NIST 1500-100 specification on which the CDF is based.
The following documents provide useful background information:
- Google's Civics Common Data Format Reference documentation. Be aware that some election-specific elements of the linked schema aren't used for officeholder data.
- Full XML Schema Definition file. This file contains Google-specific modifications. Use this version instead of the generic NIST CDF schema.