# Vote Files

> Vote Files (votefiles.com) is a nonpartisan public-record newsroom for the United States. It shows what Congress, the President, the federal courts and election authorities actually did, and links every fact it states to the official record that proves it.

Publishing standard, in brief:

- Facts are stated only when an official source proves them, and every such fact links that source.
- When no official record exists, pages say: "No official record has been found at this time; we are watching for updates." Vote Files never guesses dates, outcomes, candidates, vote counts or polling places.
- News coverage and social activity are shown attributed and linked as the outlets' own reporting. They rank attention; they never establish what government did, and Vote Files does not rate outlets.
- Computed fields (status steps, topics, signals) are labeled as computed, with their method published at https://votefiles.com/sources.php

## Cite a record

- [Citation permalinks](https://votefiles.com/open-data.php#citations): every bill, roll-call vote, executive order and verified election deadline has a permanent ID and page at https://votefiles.com/cite/{citation-id}. Add ?format=json for a machine-readable record with AP, APA, Chicago, BibTeX and plain-link citations.
- Citation ID patterns: bill-{congress}-{type}{number} (bill-119-hr1), vote-{congress}-{h|s}{archive roll} (vote-119-h9), eo-{number} (eo-14100), deadline-{ledger id}. The archive roll is Voteview's Congress-wide sequence, not the chamber's per-session roll-call number; each vote page states the official number (for example "Senate Vote 241 (119th Congress, 2nd Session)") and links the official record.
- Cite the official source for the underlying fact and Vote Files for the compiled record. Each citation shows the date Vote Files last checked it.

## Open data

- [Open data downloads](https://votefiles.com/open-data.php): JSON and CSV files of the verified datasets, with license, provenance and column documentation.
- [Download manifest](https://votefiles.com/open-data/manifest.json): file list with record counts, sizes and SHA-256 hashes.

## Main sections

- [2026 Midterm Voting Center](https://votefiles.com/midterms.php): official registration, ballot and polling-place links by state, and only the deadlines Vote Files verified.
- [Congress](https://votefiles.com/congress.php): bills and roll-call votes with exact tallies and official links.
- [Presidential record](https://votefiles.com/presidential.php) and [executive orders](https://votefiles.com/executive-orders.php): Federal Register and National Archives records.
- [Courts](https://votefiles.com/courts.php): federal and Supreme Court dockets and opinions in the courts' own words.
- [People](https://votefiles.com/browse.php): every member of Congress since 1789 and verified state and local officials.
- [The Morning Record](https://votefiles.com/briefing.php): the newest verified government actions by date.
- [Coverage Lens](https://votefiles.com/news.php): how monitored outlets are covering a story, attributed and linked, beside the official record.

## Method and policies

- [Sources and methodology](https://votefiles.com/sources.php)
- [Corrections](https://votefiles.com/corrections.php)
- [Terms of use](https://votefiles.com/terms.php)

## Optional

- [Full guide for AI systems](https://votefiles.com/llms-full.txt): record URL patterns, dataset details and archive coverage.
- [Sitemap index](https://votefiles.com/sitemap.xml)

## Record URL patterns

- Member of Congress: https://votefiles.com/member.php?m={ICPSR id}
- Verified state or local official: https://votefiles.com/official.php?o={id}
- Bill or resolution: https://votefiles.com/bill.php?b={type}&n={number}&c={congress} (types: hr, s, hjres, sjres, hconres, sconres, hres, sres)
- Roll-call vote: https://votefiles.com/bill.php?c={congress}&ch={House|Senate}&r={archive roll number, Congress-wide}
- Executive order: https://votefiles.com/eo.php?k={order number}
- Court case: https://votefiles.com/case.php?id={id}
- State desk: https://votefiles.com/state.php?s={two-letter code}; voting center: https://votefiles.com/midterms.php?state={code}
- Morning Record edition: https://votefiles.com/briefing.php?date={YYYY-MM-DD}

## Archive coverage

- 113,556 roll-call votes in the congressional archive
- 26,400,156 individual recorded votes
- 12,678 people with a congressional or presidential file
- 10,603 executive orders and presidential documents
- Roll calls dated 1789-05-16 through 2026-09-24

Counts are read from the archive build. Coverage boundaries by source are published at https://votefiles.com/sources.php

## Datasets

### 2026 general election deadlines (verified statewide records)

Statewide voter-registration, mail-ballot, early-voting and Election Day deadlines for the November 3, 2026 general election that VoteFiles verified against preserved official source pages with a later court-order check. Only records inside their current review window are included; a missing category means no official record has been verified yet, not that no deadline exists.

- Records: 179; generated 2026-09-26
- Files: [JSON](https://votefiles.com/open-data/election-deadlines-2026.json), [CSV](https://votefiles.com/open-data/election-deadlines-2026.csv)
- Coverage note: Categories without a verified, current, statewide record are omitted.
- Columns: citation_id, jurisdiction, category, event, method, voter_scope, date, cutoff_time_local, timezone, label, authority, official_source_url, last_checked, recheck_on, permalink

### Congressional bills and resolutions

Bills and resolutions from the official GovInfo BILLSTATUS record: number, official title, introduction date, latest action as written by the clerk, sponsor, and enactment. Derived status labels are not included.

- Records: 3,790; generated 2026-09-26
- Files: [JSON](https://votefiles.com/open-data/bills.json), [CSV](https://votefiles.com/open-data/bills.csv)
- Coverage note: Only the Congresses currently loaded in the archive are included.
- Columns: citation_id, congress, bill_type, bill_number, label, title, introduced_date, latest_action_date, latest_action, sponsor_name, sponsor_party, sponsor_state, is_law, law_number, official_source_url, last_checked, permalink, votefiles_url

### House and Senate roll-call votes with official digital records

Roll-call questions, dates and yea and nay totals for every vote that has an official digital roll-call record (House Clerk from 1990, Senate.gov from the 101st Congress). A result is included only where the chamber recorded one; no outcome is computed.

- Records: 35,250; generated 2026-09-26
- Files: [JSON](https://votefiles.com/open-data/roll-call-votes.json), [CSV](https://votefiles.com/open-data/roll-call-votes.csv)
- Coverage note: Earlier votes are reproduced on VoteFiles from the official journals but are not exported here because they have no official digital record link.
- Columns: citation_id, congress, chamber, rollnumber, session, clerk_rollnumber, date, question, bill, yea, nay, recorded_result, official_source_url, permalink, votefiles_url

### Executive orders with Federal Register or National Archives records

Executive orders with an official Federal Register or National Archives link: number, title, signing and publication dates, and Federal Register citation.

- Records: 6,939; generated 2026-09-26
- Files: [JSON](https://votefiles.com/open-data/executive-orders.json), [CSV](https://votefiles.com/open-data/executive-orders.csv)
- Coverage note: Orders known only from academic archives are shown on VoteFiles with that attribution but are not exported here.
- Columns: citation_id, eo_key, eo_number, title, signed_date, publication_date, president, fr_citation, fr_document_number, official_source_url, permalink, votefiles_url

License: Vote Files Terms of use; underlying U.S. government records are public domain (17 U.S.C. 105) (https://votefiles.com/terms.php)

## Crawling

- Search and AI crawlers are welcome on all public pages; see https://votefiles.com/robots.txt
- Private account, operations and test paths are excluded and marked noindex.
- Please keep request rates modest. The sitemap index lists every public record page, split into bounded child maps.