Data dictionary: Officeholders
Last updated
Last updated
The officeholders data set includes current, elected officeholders for Congress, statewide positions, state legislative positions, as well as elected officials in the .
state
The state in which the office has jurisdiction (postal abbreviation)
office_id
Ballotpedia unique identifier (stable across officeholders)
office_name
Name of the office
office_level
Level of government:
-Federal
-State
-Local
office_branch
Branch of government:
-Executive
-Legislative
-Judicial
district_id
Ballotpedia unique identifier
district_ocdid
district_name
Name of district (geographical area) that elects the office.
district_type
Type of district that elects the office:
-Country
-State
-Congress
-State Legislative (Upper)
-State Legislative (Lower)
-County
-School District
-City-town
-Judicial District
-Special District
-State subdivision
-County subdivision
-Judicial district subdivision
-Special district subdivision
-City-town subdivision
-School district subdivision
parent_district_id
Ballotpedia unique identifier used to associate a "subdivision" district with its parent (not comprehensive). Example: "X City Council, District 1" and "X City Council, District 2" have a parent district of "X City".
parent_district_name
Name of parent district
officeholder_id
Ballotpedia unique identifier
person_id
Ballotpedia unique identifier (stable across time or offices held)
name
Full name of the officeholder
first_name
First name of the officeholder
last_name
Last name of the officeholder
url
Link to the Ballotpedia profile about this person
gender
One of the following, or NULL:
-Male
-Female
-Neither/Both (if the person explicitly identifies as neither or both of the above)
status
Describes the status of the officeholder. One of the following:
-Current
-Acting
-Elect
-Magistrate
-Senior
party_affiliation
Primarily for officeholders elected in partisan elections, this is the political party with which they are/were affiliated.
date_assumed_office
Date on which they assumed this office (swearing in date or similar)
appointed_by
If relevant, the name of the person who appointed this officeholder to this office (such as a Governor)
date_appointed
Date of the appointment
date_confirmed
Date of the confirmation (judicial)
date_term_ends
For former or outgoing officeholders, the date on which they left or will leave office
Contact information is optional, available for an additional charge.
Values are listed below. The "officeholder" contact is the one used in an official capacity, while "personal" represents contacts or accounts that may not relate to the person's current position.
Values:
officeholder_email
other_email
officeholder_website
personal_website
officeholder_facebook
personal_facebook
officeholder_x
personal_x
officeholder_tiktok
personal_tiktok
officeholder_instagram
personal_instagram
officeholder_youtube
personal_youtube
officeholder_mailing_address
officeholder_phone
The project seeks to assign somewhat predictable and globally unique identifiers to political divisions. This field is not uniformly filled due to data availability.