New Data is Live in Cicero
It’s been a busy few months for the Cicero team! Following the U.S. general election in November, we have been adding new officials to the database. We’ve also updated contact information for thousands of elected officials who started new terms since November, and created a graphic breaking down what types of contact information is available in every chamber. In addition to new and newly elected officials, we’ve also added 12 additional cities to the database, holding to our promise of covering every city in the U.S. with a population of at least 100,000. Check out the new data available:
New data added since the election
One thing that makes our data so accurate and reliable is that it is hand-gathered and never scraped. So in anticipation of the onslaught of U.S. elections last fall, we hired 3 new team members to help us. With their help, we have tracked almost 300 elections and incorporated 28 new district plans in areas where there was redistricting. Since November, we have added 1,740 new officials along with updating contact information and term dates for thousands more, for a total of 22,381 edits to the database. And there’s still more work to do! We’ll continue gathering new contact information and social media accounts over the next few months for new and newly elected officials to make sure our data is up to date.
Local data additions: Keeping up with population change
Our mission is to be the global resource for elected official information and geographic data on elections and democracy. We started out just covering the City of Philadelphia, and one day hope to cover all legislative districts and elected officials around the world. For now, we continue to grow incrementally. Our current commitment to local legislative districts and officials is covering all cities in the U.S. and Canada with a population of over 100,000. Accounting for population changes last year, we identified 12 new cities that needed to be added, including:
- Tuscaloosa, AL
- Vacaville, CA
- Meridian, ID
- Carmel, IN
- Sparks, NV
- Lakewood Township, NJ
- Bend, OR
- Allen, TX
- Edinburg, TX
- League City, TX
- Sugar Land, TX
- Spokane Valley, WA
As of next week, we will now cover 427 cities and counties in the U.S., U.K. and Canada. Check out our full list of coverage here.
Updated contact information
We make updates to the Cicero database every day, including adding new officials and updating contact information. Thousands of new officials took office this month and we’ve been busy scouring legislative websites to add in their contact information. You can be sure that if a representative has published their contact info, we have it!
Most elected officials have several communication touchpoints — like social media accounts, phone/fax numbers, emails, webforms, mailing addresses, etc. Clients often come to us asking which chambers have which methods of communication to ensure that constituents are communicating with their representatives in the best way. For instance, does the U.S. Senate have email addresses or webforms? Or, does everyone on the Stockton City Council have a Twitter account?
Now you can see for yourself! With new officials in office and new cities in the database, we’ve created this interactive graphic displaying the percentage of each contact information type we have for every single chamber we cover. Check it out:
How to stay updated
We’ll continue to update the data as new information becomes available over the coming months, and as more local, international, and special elections and appointments take place. Be sure you’re signed up for our newsletter to be the first to know when we add new data, add a new feature to our product, and to be on top of redistricting news. If you’re looking to access the data, sign up for a free trial of the API or start a District Match project.
