IL special election data alternatives

[zstumgoren]

@tothebeat is working on Illinois datasource.py. we're hoping there is a better data source for special elections than the portal link provided in the data admin.

For example, 2013-02-26 special primary house has a portal link that you must drill down through. It leads to a direct link that has an HTML page of results. These are the we're hoping to avoid scraping.

Let's touch base with volunteer metadata gathers for IL and/or state agency to see if there are alternatives.

[dwillis]

Agreed - probably should be grabbing some version of this for that special election.

[nrrb]

I think @dwillis was trying to point towards the "View Vote Totals By County" link at the bottom of the HTML page of results that @zstumgoren linked:

The "View Vote Totals By County" link is actually a JavaScript call:

javascript:__doPostBack('ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$lnkVoteTotalsByCounty','')

When you click on this, the URL in the address bar doesn't change. This probably explains Derek's link in his comment above that's the same as Serdar's originally quoted link.

[dwillis]

Right you are. Thanks!

[ghing]

Picking this up.

I hit up the volunteer metadata gatherer to see if she had checked into the availability of structured data for the IL special elections.

Also a little bit more on the hell that is ASP.NET postback:

• http://www.evagoras.com/2011/02/10/how-postback-works-in-asp-net/
• https://blog.scraperwiki.com/2011/11/how-to-get-along-with-an-asp-webpage/

[bailliekova]

Hey folks. I've contacted the Illinois State Board of Elections (via phone- left message and email) today, and will post another update when I hear back/badger them again.