If you want to build apps that make use of voting information on the web, there’s a new Google API that lets you incorporate the information.

The Google Civic Information API can be used to look up comprehensive voting information for particular addresses in the U.S. such as the polling place, early vote sites, contests, and local election official contact information. The new API replaces Google’s Election Center API.

According to a post by Chetan Sabnis of the Google Politics & Elections Team on the Google Developers blog, Google will:

“make every effort to ensure we're returning timely and accurate data. We have also included contact information for local election officials in the API so voters can find the most accurate information.”

At the moment the API is limited to voting information for elections in the U.S., but Google plans to expand the support to cover other countries and include other types of civic information.

There’s a forum where you’ll be able to find updates on what data is available, and the Google Politics & Elections portal has information on the current Presidential Election campaign. http://www.google.com/elections

US election data is based on the political geography of a voter’s registered address. The voter’s address determines where the voter is eligible to vote and what offices and ballot measures the voter may vote on. You can use the Google Civic Information API to query all upcoming elections and then find information for a voter for a specific election. The API is free for data providers, users who access this information, and third parties who use Google apps to display civic information on their site. Once you register your project in the Google APIs Console, you may make up to 25,000 queries per day.

While the API is available now, via the APIs Explorer, the full voting information is expected around the middle of October, as it becomes available. Test data is currently available for you to use while developing apps. Google plans to use the API to power their own election tools, including an embeddable app anyone can use on their site.

More Information

Build apps for elections with the Google Civic Information API