New

BallotData MCP server

Included with every BallotData API purchase, at no extra cost. Connect Claude and other AI assistants to BallotData’s election and endorsement data: elections and contests as printed on the ballot, endorsers and their endorsements, candidates and officeholders. The assistant reads the data with your own BallotData API key, so it sees what your account bought.

You need a BallotData API account (buy API access) and an API key with the data:read permission, made in the API console. Use a key without an address list: requests reach the API from BallotData’s server, not from your computer.

Server address

https://mcp.ballotdata.net/mcp

Claude (claude.ai and the Claude apps)

Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector. Name it BallotData and paste the server address. When Claude connects, this site asks for your API key once.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http ballotdata https://mcp.ballotdata.net/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer ebk_your_key_here"

Or leave out --header and sign in with your key when Claude Code asks (/mcp).

Other assistants

Any client that supports remote MCP servers over Streamable HTTP can connect. Send the key as Authorization: Bearer <key> (or X-API-Key), or let the client sign in with OAuth. A typical config file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ballotdata": {
      "url": "https://mcp.ballotdata.net/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ebk_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools

Every tool only reads. Each one is a request to the BallotData API and counts toward your account’s usage and rate limits like any other.

Tool	What it does
list_states	Every state, D.C. and territory with its USPS code. Use the codes in the states filters of other tools.
get_coverage	For each state: how many elections, contests, measures, endorsers and endorsements there are, and when they last changed. Good for a first look at what data exists.
list_elections	Elections with their dates, voting rules (all-mail, ranked choice, fusion, runoffs) and counts of contests and endorsements. Most other tools filter by an election’s slug, so start here.
list_contests	Races and ballot measures, each with its district, election, voting rules (vote for N, ranked choice) and choices in ballot order. Use get_contest to see every endorser’s position in one contest.
get_contest	One contest with its choices and every endorser’s position: a pick for vote-for-one, up to N picks for vote-for-N, ranked picks for ranked choice, Yes or No on a measure. Narrow the endorsers by category, slug or home state.
list_endorser_categories	The kinds of endorser (labor, editorial, environment, business, party, club, community, officials) with how many endorsers each has. Use the slugs in categories filters.
search_endorsers	Find endorsers (unions, newspapers, parties, groups, officials) by name, category, home state or the elections they endorsed in. Returns slugs to use with get_endorser and the endorsers filters.
get_endorser	One endorser by slug: who they are, how many contests they took a position in, and the elections they endorsed in.
list_endorsements	Endorsements, one row per endorser and choice, with the endorser, contest, election and choice. Filter by endorser, category, state, election, contest kind or level; changed_since lists only new or changed ones. Use get_endorsement for the full record of one.
get_endorsement	One endorsement in full: what the endorser said and where it was published, the endorser, the contest with its district and voting rules, and the choice with its candidate and party.
get_endorsement_history	Every change to one endorsement, oldest first, with values before and after, including its deletion.
list_changes	Every endorsement added, changed or deleted since a time, in order, with values before and after. Use it to answer “what changed since …”.
search_candidates	Find candidates by name, state, election or incumbency. Each comes with the contests they are on and how many endorsers backed them; get_candidate has the endorsements themselves.
get_candidate	One candidate with every contest they are on and every endorsement they received in each: who, the rank in ranked choice, what they said and where.
list_officeholders	People in federal and state office now (and the D.C. Council), with party, term and contact details. Filter by state, office, level, seat or name.
get_officeholder	One officeholder by person_id, with every seat they hold.

Privacy

This server keeps no records of what you ask. It passes each request to the API with your key and returns the answer. When you sign in with OAuth, your key is sealed inside the tokens your assistant holds; the server stores nothing.