TRANSPARENCY
Data Sources
We believe in full transparency about where our data comes from and how we process it.
Official Sources
Maryland General Assembly (MGA)
Updated: Daily
Bill text, status, sponsors, committee assignments, hearing schedules, chapter assignments for enacted bills.
OpenStates API
Updated: Weekly
Vote records and MD state legislator data (47 senators + 141 delegates).
unitedstates/congress-legislators
Updated: Weekly
Maryland's federal delegation — 2 US Senators and 8 US Representatives — with photos, party, and contact info.
Census Geocoder API
Updated: On demand
Primary source for district lookup from residential addresses.
Google Civic Information API
Updated: On demand
Fallback and supplemental data including polling place information near elections.
MD State Board of Elections
Updated: Daily
2026 primary candidate filings — name, office, district, party, status, committee, filing date.
MDCRIS (Maryland Campaign Reporting)
Updated: Daily
Campaign finance for state-level candidates: total receipts, disbursements, cash on hand.
OpenFEC
Updated: Daily
Federal campaign finance for US Senate + US House candidates.
Ballotpedia
Updated: Daily
Additional candidate photos and biographical text where pages exist (respects 2-second crawl delay per robots.txt).
Candidate websites
Updated: Daily
og:image headshots from candidate campaign sites, plus LLM-summarized about-page bios. Falls back to a templated factual bio if no richer source exists.
U.S. Census Bureau (ACS)
Updated: Annually
District demographics: population, median income, median age, poverty rate, race/ethnicity breakdown.
| Source | Type | Update Frequency | Data Provided |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maryland General Assembly (MGA) | CSV / JSON | Daily | Bill text, status, sponsors, committee assignments, hearing schedules, chapter assignments for enacted bills. |
| OpenStates API | REST API | Weekly | Vote records and MD state legislator data (47 senators + 141 delegates). |
| unitedstates/congress-legislators | JSON (public domain) | Weekly | Maryland's federal delegation — 2 US Senators and 8 US Representatives — with photos, party, and contact info. |
| Census Geocoder API | REST API | On demand | Primary source for district lookup from residential addresses. |
| Google Civic Information API | REST API | On demand | Fallback and supplemental data including polling place information near elections. |
| MD State Board of Elections | CSV download | Daily | 2026 primary candidate filings — name, office, district, party, status, committee, filing date. |
| MDCRIS (Maryland Campaign Reporting) | Public widget API | Daily | Campaign finance for state-level candidates: total receipts, disbursements, cash on hand. |
| OpenFEC | REST API | Daily | Federal campaign finance for US Senate + US House candidates. |
| Ballotpedia | Web scrape | Daily | Additional candidate photos and biographical text where pages exist (respects 2-second crawl delay per robots.txt). |
| Candidate websites | Web scrape | Daily | og:image headshots from candidate campaign sites, plus LLM-summarized about-page bios. Falls back to a templated factual bio if no richer source exists. |
| U.S. Census Bureau (ACS) | REST API | Annually | District demographics: population, median income, median age, poverty rate, race/ethnicity breakdown. |
How We Process Data
Collect
Automated pipelines pull data from official sources on regular schedules.
Validate
Data is checked for completeness, consistency, and accuracy against known records.
Normalize
Records are standardized into a unified format and cross-referenced across sources.
Publish
Processed data is served through our API and displayed on the platform.
Data Verification
We cross-reference data across multiple sources to ensure accuracy. Bill information from MGA CSV exports is validated against the official MGA website. Vote records from OpenStates are checked against published committee and floor vote reports. If you find a discrepancy, please report it so we can investigate and correct it promptly.
Disclaimer
Show Up Maryland is an independent civic technology project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the State of Maryland, the Maryland General Assembly, or any government agency. While we strive for accuracy, always verify critical information (such as registration deadlines, polling locations, and ballot details) with official state sources. Data may be delayed relative to real-time legislative activity.