VIP Spec
VIP 5.2 Specification
VIP developed its own standard format: the VIP Specification. The Specification makes data interoperable across platforms and applications. Ultimately, it allows data to be more easily disseminated to voters.
As VIP has evolved, so has its data standard. Development of VIP 5 began in 2015 and was a collaborative effort with Pew, Google, state and local election officials, and other organizations affiliated with VIP. VIP 5 also uses elements from the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s voting specification, which is used by states across the country.
Improvements available in VIP 5 include:
Support for drop-off locations
Structured hours across multiple languages
Statewide polling location functionality
In the summer of 2020, VIP released the VIP 5.2 Specification to enhance the usability and features of VIP 5.
New features in VIP 5.2 allow states and localities to:
Highlight critical information for a specific election via the Election Notice custom text field
Submit structured address information for polling locations, which can increase the accuracy of geocoding for voting locations
Upgrading from VIP 5.1 to VIP 5.2 takes one step. Simply update the Source element’s Version tag to 5.2. All features from VIP 5.1 are still supported, so no other updates are required.
If you would like to upgrade to VIP 5.2 from an older version, or have any questions, please contact our team at info@votinginfoproject.org. We are happy to assist any state, locality, or Election Management System vendor in building a VIP 5.2 export.
VIP continues to support past versions 5.1 and 3.0.