Ballot Measure Updates

Summary of Changes

The following updates are now available in the Elections response for ballot measures:

  • Race Type. The race type value of "Ballot Issue" (raceType in JSON; Type in XML) has been replaced with the race type value matching the returned race type ID (raceTypeID in JSON; TypeID in XML). Since the returned race type ID for ballot measures is typically "G" or "W", the matching race type of "General" or "Special General" respectively is now returned instead of "Ballot Issue".

  • Supplemental Office ID. All ballot measures, no matter the type (for example, "Question" or "Constitutional Amendment") now have an office type ID of "I". A supplemental three-letter ID starting with "I" is also available for each of the ballot measure types in a new additional response field (suppOfficeID in JSON; SuppOfficeID in XML).

  • Seat Number. The Seat Number "0" ("seatNum": "0" in JSON or SeatNum="0" in XML) is no longer returned for ballot measures.

  • Designation. The state's numeric or alphanumeric identifier of a ballot measure (for example, "1" or "2A") is returned in a new field (designation in JSON; Designation in XML).

  • Category. The topic of the ballot measure assigned by the AP News Department is returned in a new field (category in JSON; Category in XML). Possible values are Abortion, Courts and Justice, Drug Policy, Education, Gambling, Guns, Healthcare, Infrastructure, Labor, Other, Religion, Voting and Elections.

  • Summary. For national ballot measures, a concise description (200–300 words) created by the AP News Department is returned in a new field (summary in JSON; Summary in XML).

  • Threshold. The percentage of ballot measure votes necessary to approve the measure is returned in the winThreshold field in JSON (WinThreshold in XML). If this field is not present, the threshold is 50%.

XML Examples

 

  Note

 

For brevity, these examples are provided in XML. JSON property names match the names of the XML attributes and are available for reference above.

 

 

 

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