This is a simple Voter ID API to be used by developers around the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election. It provides data on applicable voter ID laws to the 2012 general election at the state level. This data can be useful for visualizing and analyzing the impact of new voter id laws before and after the election.

Here is a breakdown of the data that this API currently serves up.

###State Info

• Name, abbreviation, capital name, and 2011 population, taken from Wikpedia. Thx, Wikipedia!

###Voting Details (All information taken from the National Conference of State Legislatures website)

• Strict: According to the NCSL website, strict means that "a voter cannot cast a ballot without first presenting ID."
• Non-Strict: Without an ID, voters "may be permitted to sign an affidavit of identity, or poll workers may be able to vouch for them personally."

The reg_link field includes the URL to the specific voter ID requirements for each state from the awesome Cost of Freedom app

Want to help add new data?

Download a .csv here.

More to come, but here are the current endpoints. Each responds to GET requests only with JSON.

Returns all data for all states:

{
    "results": [  
        {  
            "info": {  
                "pop2011": 4802740,  
                "capital": "Montgomery",  
                "votes": 9,
                "abbr": "AL
                "},
            "vote": {
                "strict": false,
                "photo": false,
                "id": true,
                "reg_link": "http://www.costoffreedom.info/state/AL"
            }, 
            "name": "Alabama"
        },
        {
            "info": {
                "pop2011": 722718,
                "capital": "Juneau",
                "votes": 3,
                "abbr": "AK"
        },
            "vote": {
                "strict": false,
                "photo": false,
                "id": true,
                "reg_link": "http://www.costoffreedom.info/state/AK"
            },
            "name": "Alaska"
        },
        ... 

Pass a state's name or two-letter abbreviation to get only that state's data.

Returns the states that require the parameter passed.

JSONP is supported:

Whew, glad you're here, this project could use a lot of help!

More data is the top priority as what is available here is only intended as a start. Here are few things that I think would be good to include:

• Date of voter id change. This is vital, but requires some research. I haven't been able to find one source that compiled this information in an easy format. I think it's also open to discussion on what this date should pertain to
• Current and past governors party affiliation per state
• Current and past state senate majority party per state
• Past Presidential results per state (2000-2008?)
• Whatever else folks find useful!

Is this API useful to developers? Can it be improved? Is there something that should be included?

A public face that communicates what the API is better than a Github readme would be awesome

Because I'm awful with Photoshop.

If you would like to help, please email or tweet below or come out to the Hacks for Democracy hackathon! Thx!

Does your application use this API? Get in touch or submit a pull request to add it here!

Feel free to submit a pull request to add more!

Cost of Freedom

This API was created in early September by Dave Walk (@ddw17) originally for the the Hacks for Democracy hackathon in Philadelphia.

If you have any questions, issues, requests, etc., please open an issue or email Dave at daviddwalk@gmail.com. You can follow along to updates on Twitter at @voteridapi