Office

Office represents the office associated with a contest or district (e.g. Alderman, Mayor, School Board, et al).

Tag	Data Type	Required?	Repeats?	Description	Error Handling
ContactInformation	ContactInformation	Optional	Repeats	Links to the ContactInformation element associated with the office.
Description	InternationalizedText	Optional	Single	A brief description of the office and its purpose.
ElectoralDistrictId	xs:IDREF	Required	Single	Links to the ElectoralDistrict element associated with the office.
ExternalIdentifiers	ExternalIdentifiers	Optional	Single	Other identifiers that link this office to other related datasets (e.g. campaign finance systems, OCD IDs, et al.).
FilingDeadline	xs:date	Optional	Single	Specifies the date and time when a candidate must have filed for the contest for the office.
IsPartisan	xs:boolean	Optional	Single	Indicates whether the office is partisan.
Name	InternationalizedText	Required	Single	The name of the office.
OfficeHolderPersonIds	xs:IDREFS	Optional	Single	Links to the Person element(s) that hold additional information about the current office holder(s).
Term	Term	Optional	Single	Defines the term the office can be held.

Term

Tag	Data Type	Required?	Repeats?	Description	Error Handling
Type	OfficeTermType	Required	Single	Specifies the type of office term (see OfficeTermType for valid values).
StartDate	xs:date	Optional	Single	Specifies the start date for the current term of the office.
EndDate	xs:date	Optional	Single	Specifies the end date for the current term of the office.

<Office id="off0000">
  <ElectoralDistrictId>ed60129</ElectoralDistrictId>
  <FilingDeadline>2013-01-01</FilingDeadline>
  <IsPartisan>false</IsPartisan>
  <Name>
    <Text language="en">Governor</Text>
  </Name>
  <Term>
    <Type>full-term</Type>
  </Term>
</Office>

ContactInformation

For defining contact information about objects such as persons, boards of authorities, organizations, etc. ContactInformation is always a sub-element of another object (e.g. ElectionAdministration, Office, Person, Source). ContactInformation has an optional attribute label, which allows the feed to refer back to the original label for the information (e.g. if the contact information came from a CSV, label may refer to a row ID).

Tag	Data Type	Required?	Repeats?	Description	Error Handling
AddressLine	xs:string	Optional	Repeats	The “location” portion of a mailing address. See usage note.
Directions	InternationalizedText	Optional	Single	Specifies further instructions for locating this entity.
Email	xs:string	Optional	Repeats	An email address for the contact.
Fax	xs:string	Optional	Repeats	A fax line for the contact.
Hours [deprecated]	InternationalizedText	Optional	Single	Contains the hours (in local time) that the location is open (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 an HoursOpen element, which lists the hours of operation for a location.
LatLng	LatLng	Optional	Single	Specifies the latitude and longitude of this entity.
Name	xs:string	Optional	Single	The name of the location or contact. See usage note.
Phone	xs:string	Optional	Repeats	A phone number for the contact.
Uri	xs:anyURI	Optional	Repeats	An informational URI for the contact or location.

Name and AddressLine Usage Note

The Name and AddressLine fields should be chosen so that a display or mailing address can be constructed programmatically by joining the Name and AddressLine fields together. For example, for the following address:

Department of Elections
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 48
San Francisco, CA 94102

The name could be “Department of Elections” and the first address line could be “1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 48.”

However, VIP does not yet support the representation of mailing addresses whose “name” portion spans more than one line, for example:

California Secretary of State
Elections Division
1500 11th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814

For addresses like the above, we recommend choosing a name like, “California Secretary of State, Elections Division” with “1500 11th Street” as the first address line. This would result in a programmatically constructed address like the following:

California Secretary of State, Elections Division
1500 11th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814

<ContactInformation label="ci10861a">
   <AddressLine>1600 Pennsylvania Ave</AddressLine>
   <AddressLine>Washington, DC 20006</AddressLine>
   <Email>president@whitehouse.gov</Email>
   <Phone>202-456-1111</Phone>
   <Phone annotation="TDD">202-456-6213</Phone>
   <Uri>http://www.whitehouse.gov</Uri>
</ContactInformation>