Louisiana Secretary of State

Election Night Media

About the version date-time:

  • A version date-time of “1/1/1900 12:00:00 AM” means that no results for the election have been received yet. The files with that version will have no votes recorded.
  • A “real” version-date-time means Intermediate results for the election. The date-time will indicate the approximate time when that version of the results was processed by the Secretary of State.
  • A version date-time of “01/01/9999 12:00:00 AM” means the election is over, but the results are not yet official.
  • A version date-time of “12/31/9999 12:59:59 PM” means the election is over and the results are official. No further versions will be issued.

XML Files

  • RacesAndCandidates
    • Contains all races and candidates in the election. This data will be the same from one version date-time to another. You should only need to retrieve it once per election.
  • ParishVotes
    • All vote information for the election, summed to the parish level, as of the version date-time.
  • PrecinctVotes
    • All vote information for the election, at the precinct level, as-of the version date-time.

RacesAndCandidates Breakdown



  • ElectionDate
    • Election date
  • WriteTime
    • When the file was written.
  • Race
    • ID
      • Our identifier for this race. Will be referenced in the vote files.
    • Title
      • Title of the race.
    • ParishName
      • Name of the parish, or "Multi-Parish" for multi-parish elections.
    • NumToBeElected
      • Number of candidates to be elected in this race.
  • Order
    • Overall order of the race on the SOS election results website.
  • Choice
    • ID
      • Our identifier for this candidate in this race. Will be referenced in the vote files.
    • Description
      • Name of the candidate, or text for a referendum.
    • BallotNumber
      • If a candidate, their ballot number.
    • Party
      • If a candidate, their political affiliation. Will be one of the following: “DEM”, “REP”, “GRN”, “LBT”, “IND”, “OTHER”, “NONE”.

ParishVotes Breakdown



  • ElectionDate
    • Election date.
  • VersionDateTime
    • Version of the data.
  • Race
    • ID
      • Primary key for the race, referenced in RacesAndCandidates xml.
    • Parish
      • 2-digit parish code.
    • NumPrecinctsReporting
      • Number of precincts that have reported for this race.
    • NumPrecinctsExpected
      • Number of precincts expected to report for this race.
  • Choice
    • ID
      • Primary key for the candidate, referenced in RacesAndCandidates xml.
    • VoteTotal
      • Total number of votes cast for this candidate in this parish.

PrecinctVotes Breakdown



  • ElectionDate
    • Election date
  • VersionDateTime
    • Version of the data
  • Race
    • ID
      • Primary key for the race, referenced in RacesAndCandidates xml.
    • Parish
      • 2-digit parish code.
    • Ward
      • Ward.
    • Precinct
      • Precinct.
  • Choice
    • ID
      • Primary key for the candidate, referenced in RacesAndCandidates xml.
    • VoteTotal
      • Total number of votes cast for this candidate in this precinct.