rcvformats 0.0.10

Schema validations, migrations, and conversions to standardize the Ranked Choice Voting ecosystem

RCV Formats

Build tools for the Ranked Choice Voting Ecosystem without having to support each file format individually. RCV Formats converts data from several sources into a single, standardized format with just one line of code:

from rcvformats.converters.automatic import AutomaticConverter

standardized_format = AutomaticConverter().convert_to_ut(arbitrary_format)

The standardized format is the Universal RCV Tabulator JSON. To understand this format, look at examples or the jsonschema.

Installation

pip3 install rcvformats

Additional Options

RCV Formats can also run schema validations and conversions from specific formats.

Schema Validation

Validate that your file format matches one of several available schemas:

1. The Universal RCV Tabulator JSON format
2. The Opavote JSON format
3. The ElectionBuddy CSV format

Currently, validation is only on the structure of the data, not on its contents: it is possible for a validly-formatted file to still contain invalid data.

You can run the validation and examine errors via:

from rcvformats.schemas import universaltabulator

schema = universaltabulator.SchemaV0()
is_valid = schema.validate_file('/path/to/file.json')

if not is_valid:
  print(schema.get_last_error())

Valid schema validators are:

from rcvformats.schemas.electionbuddy import SchemaV0
from rcvformats.schemas.opavote import SchemaV1_0
from rcvformats.schemas.universaltabulator import SchemaV0

File Format Conversion

You can convert from any of the supported formats and to the Universal RCV Tabulator format. The currently supported formats are:

1. ElectionBuddy CSVs
2. Opavote JSONs

You can run the conversion via:

from rcvformats.conversions import electionbuddy

converter = electionbuddy.ElectionBuddyConverter()
try:
  converter.convert_to_ut(filename)
except Exception as e:
  print("Errors: ", e)

Valid converters are:

from rcvformats.converters.automatic import AutomaticConverter
from rcvformats.conversions.electionbuddy import ElectionBuddyConverter
from rcvformats.conversions.opavote import OpavoteConverter

The AutomaticConverter checks if the file matches any of the available schemas, and if it finds a matching schema, it runs the corresponding conversion (if a conversion is needed at all).

Upcoming plans

1. Allow any format to be converted both to and from the Universal Tabulator format
2. More unit tests
3. Create both structure and data validations for the Universal Tabulator format
4. Validation for both tabulated formats and cast vote records

Running test suite

Run nosetests in the root directory