Maine Ballot Website
MaineBallot.org was created by Shannon McHarg, a user experience designer living in Maine, and is supported by Open Maine volunteers. The goal of MaineBallot.org is to provide concise, non-partisan information to make it easy to understand the ballot questions pending in Maine.
While MaineBallot.org strives to present all sides of the arguments for and against the pending ballot questions, there is always a potential for error or bias. We encourage you to consult with other sources of information before you vote. Your choice to access these pages constitutes an acknowledgement that the information provided is not legal or voting advice of any kind. We will be updating this site on a regular basis until election day.
Please let us know if we missed something or if you have any suggestions to improve our site. Contact us at: maineballot@gmail.com
Want to create a similar site for your state?
Go ahead and clone the repository! Learn how to create your own ballot website.
Project Structure
Inside of this Astro project, you'll see the following folders and files:
├── .github/
├── .husky/
├── .vscode/
├── public/
├── src/
│ ├── assets/
│ ├── components/
│ ├── content/config.ts
│ ├── data/
│ ├── layouts/
│ ├── pages/
│ ├── styles/
│ ├── utils/
│ └── env.d.ts
├── .editorconfig
├── CNAME
├── eslint.config.js
├── LICENSE
├── netlify.toml
├── package-lock.json
├── package.json
├── README.md
├── tailwind.config.ts
└── tsconfig.jsonDirectories
public
This is where static, uncompiled files are stored. Things like the site's meta image, resources like PDF's and text documents, and any other files that are served "as-is".
src
This is where the bulk of the project lives. Everything in here is bundled into the project files
src/assets
Assets that are used by and bundled into the site. These files are optimized and compiled at "build" time.
src/components
Reusable pieces of code that are referenced regularly throughout the site. Can be .astro or .tsx components.
src/content/config.ts
Where we define the site's content schemas. This let's us know the "shape" of our various content as we're working with it in our templates and components.
src/data
Where our site's content lives. This can be (mostly) any data type: markdown, json, csv, etc. It's reference and loaded into our site as defined in src/content/config.ts.
src/layouts
Similar to src/components in that it's a reusable piece of code. Except these components are used to "wrap around" rather than "injected into".
src/pages
This is where Astro looks to create all the pages on the site. Pages can be .astro or markdown files. In our case, we're using .astro and pulling in markdown content manually. Each page is exposed as a route based on its file name.
src/pages/blog.astrocreates a/blogroute.src/pages/blog/[slug]creates a dynamic/blog/blog-slugroute.src/pages/blog/[...slug]creates a dynamic/blog/a/b/croute.
src/utils
Various reusable functions that we use throught the site.
File Types
This project uses various file and content types, most importantly markdown, .astro, and .tsx
markdown
This site uses both .md and .mdx to render content. .mdx is a special type of markdown that is compiled with JavaScript. This means we can do some fancy things with it like use HTML directly, embed components, and reference frontmatter within a document.
.astro
Astro files are written with JSX, a special type of markup similar to HTML. You can use any type of valid HTML in these files. You can also write JavaScript functions and reference components.
The "frontmatter" is where the any variables are defined. These files are statically generated at build time so they cannot be used to run as client-side JavaScript (unless its written in a <script> tag).
.tsx
These files are where our most of the site's client-side JavaScript is written. Anything that is interactive to users, like the mobile menu and sortable tables, lives here. In our case, these are React components that are embedded into the site as "islands".
While these components are typically rendered on the client (as opposed to statically during the build-step), there are ways to ensure data referenced in these components is available without having to wait. This is useful for things like SEO and perceived loading times.
Credits
Creator
Contributors
See the contributors page on maineballot.org.
Image Credits
Most images on the site are in the public domain or have been purchased and don't require attribution, except:
Commencement Exercises University of Maine Orono 05132017 by Regan Vercruysse, Creative Commons 2.0 license, Original Image
Site Theme
This site uses an adaptation of the Minimal Mistakes Jekyll Theme.
Creator
Michael Rose
License
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) 2013-2018 Michael Rose and contributors
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.