Map the institution, not just the city name

A mailing address can sit inside several governmental boundaries. A county, municipality, school district and special-purpose body may each make different decisions. The Census of Governments provides a structured way to identify governmental units; a unit’s existence does not automatically tell you who currently holds each seat or when its next election occurs.

Distinguish a directory from a live roster

An institutional directory describes organizations. An official roster describes people connected to offices at a stated time. These sources may be published by different agencies on different schedules. Electionpedia links the institution and the person when the evidence supports a match, while preserving the distinction between the source’s reference year and the latest date the file was checked.