Districts¶

Note

An alpha of API v2 is now available, please check out API v2.

District Search: List districts for state (and optionally filtered by chamber).
District Boundary Lookup: Get geographic boundary for a district.

Methods¶

District Search¶

The district search method requires a state and can optionally also take a chamber as part of the URL.

The method returns a list of district objects with the following fields:

abbr State abbreviation.
boundary_id boundary_id used in District Boundary Lookup
chamber Whether this district belongs to the upper or lower chamber.
id A unique ID for this district (separate from boundary_id).
legislators List of legislators that serve in this district. (may be more than one if num_seats > 1)
name Name of the district (e.g. ‘14’, ‘33A’, ‘Fifth Suffolk’)
num_seats Number of legislators that are elected to this seat. Generally one, but will be 2 or more if the seat is a multi-member district.

Example: openstates.org/api/v1/districts/nc/lower/

District Boundary Lookup¶

This method returns an full district object, including the boundary given a boundary id.

The returned object has the following fields:

abbr State abbreviation.
bbox A bounding box composed of a list of two (long, lat) points. The first point is the upper left corner, and the second point is the lower right.
boundary_id boundary_id for this boundary.
chamber Whether this district belongs to the upper or lower chamber.
id A unique ID for this district (separate from boundary_id).
name Name of the district (e.g. ‘14’, ‘33A’, ‘Fifth Suffolk’)
num_seats Number of legislators that are elected to this seat. Generally one, but will be 2 or more if the seat is a multi-member district.
region A dictionary of the following values:
- center_lat Center latitude of the bounding box.
- center_lon Center longitude of the bounding box.
- lat_delta Equivalent to max(latitude)-min(latitude)
- lon_delta Equivalent to max(longitude)-min(longitude)
shape List of polygons, each of which is a GeoJSON-like list of coordinates describing a single polygon.

Example: openstates.org/api/v1/districts/boundary/sldl/nc-120/

Examples¶

District Search¶

openstates.org/api/v1/districts/nc/lower/

[
 { "abbr": "nc",
  "boundary_id": "sldl/nc-1",
  "chamber": "lower",
  "id": "nc-lower-1",
  "legislators": [
   { "full_name": "Bob Steinburg", "leg_id": "NCL000302" }
  ],
  "name": "1",
  "num_seats": 1 },
 { "abbr": "nc",
  "boundary_id": "sldl/nc-12",
  "chamber": "lower",
  "id": "nc-lower-12",
  "legislators": [
   { "full_name": "George Graham", "leg_id": "NCL000281" }
  ],
  "name": "12",
  "num_seats": 1 },
 { "abbr": "nc",
  "boundary_id": "sldl/nc-13",
  "chamber": "lower",
  "id": "nc-lower-13",
  "legislators": [
   { "full_name": "Pat McElraft", "leg_id": "NCL000137" }
  ],
  "name": "13",
  "num_seats": 1 },
 { "abbr": "nc",
  "boundary_id": "sldl/nc-14",
  "chamber": "lower",
  "id": "nc-lower-14",
  "legislators": [
   { "full_name": "George G Cleveland", "leg_id": "NCL000076" }
  ],
  "name": "14",
  "num_seats": 1 },
 { "abbr": "nc",
  "boundary_id": "sldl/nc-15",
  "chamber": "lower",
  "id": "nc-lower-15",
  "legislators": [
   { "full_name": "Phil R Shepard", "leg_id": "NCL000221" }
  ],
  "name": "15",
  "num_seats": 1 },
 ... truncated ...
]

District Boundary Lookup¶

openstates.org/api/v1/districts/boundary/sldl/nc-120/

{
 "abbr": "nc",
 "bbox": [
  [ 34.986592, -84.321869 ],
  [ 35.466558, -83.108571 ]
 ],
 "boundary_id": "sldl/nc-120",
 "chamber": "lower",
 "id": "nc-lower-120",
 "name": "120",
 "num_seats": 1,
 "region": {
  "center_lat": 35.226575,
  "center_lon": -83.71522,
  "lat_delta": 0.47996599999999745,
  "lon_delta": 1.2132980000000089
 },
 "shape": [
  [
   [
    [ -84.321797, 34.988965 ],
    [ -84.308201, 35.092843 ],
    [ -84.30696, 35.106162 ],
    [ -84.297721, 35.169478 ],
    [ -84.294723, 35.185594 ],
    [ -84.29024, 35.225572 ],
    [ -84.289921, 35.225585 ],
    [ -84.290061, 35.225257 ],
    [ -84.289621, 35.224677 ],
    [ -84.288516, 35.224391 ],
    [ -84.28712, 35.224877 ],
    [ -84.28512, 35.226577 ],
    [ -84.28322, 35.226577 ],
    [ -84.28152, 35.229277 ],
    [ -84.27792, 35.231477 ],
    [ -84.27702, 35.233177 ],
    [ -84.27662, 35.233277 ],
    ... truncated ..
   ],
   ... truncated ...
  ]
 ]
}