CivicSchema

Overview

CivicSchema defines a structured vocabulary for describing political entities in machine-readable formats. It extends schema.org with types specific to electoral and legislative contexts: candidates, officeholders, advocacy organizations, and the evidence that supports claims about each.

The vocabulary uses the cv: prefix resolving to https://civicschema.org/schema/v1/. All types are companion types — they are standalone entities related to schema.org types and to each other via shared canonicalUrl and @id references. Existing schema.org or cv: types are never modified to add fields.

The context file is available at: https://civicschema.org/schema/v1/context.jsonld

JSON-LD Context

Include the context declaration in any document using cv: types:

{
  "@context": [
    "https://schema.org/",
    "https://civicschema.org/schema/v1/context.jsonld"
  ],
  "@type": "cv:CandidateProfile",
  ...
}

Or reference the namespace directly:

{
  "@context": {
    "cv": "https://civicschema.org/schema/v1/",
    "schema": "https://schema.org/"
  },
  ...
}

Types

CivicSchema defines 23 types across four categories.

Candidate Types 5 types

Officeholder Types 7 types

Advocacy Organization Types 5 types

Evidence Types 6 types

Properties

All properties are in the cv: namespace. Properties typed as @id expect a URI. Properties typed as xsd:date expect ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD).

Candidate Properties

Officeholder Properties

Advocacy Organization Properties

Shared and Evidence Properties

Usage Examples

Candidate Profile

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": {
    "cv": "https://civicschema.org/schema/v1/",
    "schema": "https://schema.org/"
  },
  "@type": "cv:CandidateProfile",
  "@id": "https://example.com/candidates/jane-doe",
  "schema:name": "Jane Doe",
  "cv:officeSought": "U.S. Senate",
  "cv:electionCycle": "2026",
  "cv:electionDate": "2026-11-03",
  "cv:fecCandidateId": "S0XX00000",
  "cv:incumbentStatus": "challenger",
  "cv:campaignWebsite": "https://janedoe.com",
  "cv:canonicalUrl": "https://example.com/candidates/jane-doe"
}
</script>

Legislative Achievement

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": {
    "cv": "https://civicschema.org/schema/v1/",
    "schema": "https://schema.org/"
  },
  "@type": "cv:LegislativeAchievement",
  "cv:officeholder": "Jane Doe",
  "cv:achievementTitle": "Rural Broadband Infrastructure Act",
  "cv:achievementType": "enacted-legislation",
  "cv:billIdentifier": "S.1234",
  "cv:enactedDate": "2023-08-15",
  "cv:fundingAmount": 45000000,
  "cv:fundingPurpose": "Rural broadband deployment",
  "cv:districtImpact": "Expands high-speed internet access to 120,000 rural households",
  "cv:canonicalUrl": "https://example.com/officeholders/jane-doe/achievements/broadband-act"
}
</script>

Relationship via canonicalUrl

Evidence types are standalone companions linked to their subject via cv:canonicalUrl, not by modifying the subject type:

{
  "@type": "cv:EvidenceBundle",
  "cv:bundleLabel": "Campaign Finance — Jane Doe 2026",
  "cv:dateCompiled": "2026-01-15",
  "cv:canonicalUrl": "https://example.com/candidates/jane-doe",
  "cv:evidenceBases": [
    {
      "@type": "cv:EvidenceBasis",
      "cv:evidenceType": "fec-filing",
      "cv:sourceAuthority": "Federal Election Commission",
      "cv:officialRecordUrl": "https://www.fec.gov/data/candidate/S0XX00000/",
      "cv:sourceDate": "2026-01-31"
    }
  ]
}