What we can find out about elections

http://bycoffe.com/nicar2012

Federal data

• Why?
• This is expected to be the most expensive election year ever
• Find spending patterns
• Find contribution patterns
• Find graft
• Build tools that make it easier to keep track of the data:
  • PAC Track - ProPublica
  • Sunlight
  • Who's Financing the 'Super PACs' - NY Times
  • How much are Super PACs spending? - WSJ
• Tools
  • Electronic filings dashboard
  • NYTimes API key
  • Independent expenditures
  • The FEC also provides a lot of this data in bulk
  • FECh
    • What an electronic filing looks like
    • What a filing looks like with FECh
    • Readers: Help Us Discover a Secret Donor
    • The original filing
    • The amendment
    • An easy way to find what's changed
• OpenSecrets.org

State data

• National Institute on Money in State Politics
• VPAP
• Cal-Access