Election

The Election object represents an Election Day, which usually consists of many individual contests and/or referenda. A feed must contain exactly one Election object. All relationships in the feed (e.g., street segment to precinct to polling location) are assumed to relate only to the Election specified by this object. It is permissible, and recommended, to combine unrelated contests (e.g., a special election and a general election) that occur on the same day into one feed with one Election object.

Tag	Data Type	Required?	Repeats?	Description	Error Handling
Date	xs:date	Required	Single	Specifies when the election is being held. The Date is considered to be in the timezone local to the state holding the election.
ElectionType	InternationalizedText	Optional	Single	Specifies the highest controlling authority for election (e.g., federal, state, county, city, town, etc.)
StateId	xs:IDREF	Required	Single	Specifies a link to the State element where the election is being held.
IsStatewide	xs:boolean	Optional	Single	Indicates whether the election is statewide.	If the field is not present or invalid, the implementation is required to default to “yes”.
Name	InternationalizedText	Optional	Single	The name for the election (NB: while optional, this element is highly recommended).
RegistrationInfo	InternationalizedText	Optional	Single	Specifies information about registration for this election either as text or a URI.
AbsenteeBallotInfo	InternationalizedText	Optional	Single	Specifies information about requesting absentee ballots either as text or a URI
ResultsUri	xs:anyURI	Optional	Single	Contains a URI where results for the election may be found
PollingHours [deprecated]	InternationalizedText	Optional	Single	Contains the hours (in local time) that Election Day polling locations are open. If polling hours differ in specific polling locations, alternative hours may be specified in the PollingLocation object (NB: this element is deprecated in favor of the more structured :ref:`multi-xml-hours-open` element. It is strongly encouraged that data providers move toward contributing hours in this format).
HoursOpenId	xs:IDREF	Optional	Single	References the HoursOpen element, which lists the hours of operation for polling locations.
HasElectionDayRegistration	xs:boolean	Optional	Single	Specifies if a voter can register on the same day of the election (i.e., the last day of the election). Valid items are “yes” and “no”.
RegistrationDeadline	xs:date	Optional	Single	Specifies the last day to register for the election with the possible exception of Election Day registration.
AbsenteeRequestDeadline	xs:date	Optional	Single	Specifies the last day to request an absentee ballot.

<Election id="ele30000">
  <AbsenteeRequestDeadline>2013-10-30</AbsenteeRequestDeadline>
  <Date>2013-11-05</Date>
  <ElectionType>
    <Text language="en">General</Text>
    <Text language="es">Generales</Text>
  </ElectionType>
  <HasElectionDayRegistration>false</HasElectionDayRegistration>
  <HoursOpenId>hours0001</HoursOpenId>
  <IsStatewide>true</IsStatewide>
  <Name>
    <Text language="en">2013 Statewide General</Text>
  </Name>
  <RegistrationDeadline>2013-10-15</RegistrationDeadline>
  <ResultsUri>http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/ElectionResults.html</ResultsUri>
  <StateId>st51</StateId>
</Election>