Where our information comes from

Federal government

• Federal bills and laws
  Congress.gov, Library of Congress
• U.S. Senate roll-call votes
  United States Senate
• U.S. House roll-call votes
  Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives
• Federal campaign contributions and committee filings
  Federal Election Commission
• Congressional districts, demographics, address geocoding
  U.S. Census Bureau
• Prices, wages and employment figures
  U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Corporate filings
  U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

State campaign finance

Contribution records come directly from the official disclosure authority in each of these states. States not listed here are not sources — we do not hold their filings.

• California
  California Secretary of State (CAL-ACCESS)
• Colorado
  Colorado Secretary of State (TRACER)
• Florida
  Florida Division of Elections
• Georgia
  Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission
• New Jersey
  New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission
• New York
  New York State Board of Elections
• North Carolina
  North Carolina State Board of Elections
• Ohio
  Ohio Secretary of State
• Pennsylvania
  Pennsylvania Department of State
• Texas
  Texas Ethics Commission
• Virginia
  Virginia Department of Elections
• Washington
  Washington Public Disclosure Commission

Local government

• City council agendas, minutes and local ordinances
  The official Legistar portal each city publishes
• County election and candidate filing records
  Alameda County Registrar of Voters

Independent republishers

These are not government bodies. They are independent organisations that republish official records, and we name them separately so the distinction is never blurred.

• State legislation and state floor votes
  Open StatesAn independent nonprofit that republishes each state legislature's own official record.
• Election dates and ballot data
  Google Civic Information APIGoogle's public API, assembled from state and local election officials' data.
• Candidate and race reference data
  BallotpediaAn independent nonprofit encyclopedia of American politics.
• Illinois campaign finance
  Illinois SunshineA third-party republisher of Illinois State Board of Elections filings (https://elections.il.gov).

News

News articles come from independent news outlets across the political spectrum and are always attributed to the outlet that published them. Civilian links out rather than republishing. Plain-English summaries and personal-impact analysis are produced by Civilian and are not official government statements.