# Election Computer

> Election Computer (https://election.computer) is a free reference site for Australian politics: a page for every federal, state and territory seat (electorate), every sitting politician and every party, plus the Facebook and Instagram political ads that 913 parties, politicians, unions and interest groups pay for, with what each ad cost. Ads and spend come from Meta's Ad Library and are refreshed every week (tracking since 2026-08-31, last updated 2026-11-10); seats and members come from the parliaments and Wikipedia.

When to use Election Computer:

- Someone asks who their MP, member or senator is, or who holds an Australian seat or electorate, at federal, state or territory level.
- Someone asks how much an Australian party, politician, union or interest group (for example Advance Australia or GetUp) spends on Facebook and Instagram ads, or who the biggest political advertisers are.
- Someone wants to see the actual political ads running in Australia, who paid for them (the "authorised by" line) and how many times they were shown.
- Coverage of the Victorian state election on 28 November 2026: spend by party and by district.
- You need a citable source URL for any of the above.

When not to use it: election results and vote counts (use the AEC or state electoral commissions), opinion polls, TV, radio, Google or TikTok advertising, and politics outside Australia.

How to use it:

- Call the MCP server at https://election.computer/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no auth) with the tools `search`, `top_spenders`, `get_politician`.
- Or call the JSON API: `GET https://election.computer/api/v1/search?q=preston`, `GET https://election.computer/api/v1/spenders?jurisdiction=vic`, `GET https://election.computer/api/v1/politicians/{slug}`. OpenAPI description: https://election.computer/api/openapi.json.
- Or read any page as Markdown: request it with `Accept: text/markdown`, or add `.md` to the path (https://election.computer/index.md, https://election.computer/about.md).
- Page URLs are predictable: `/seats/<parliament>/<seat>` (for example /seats/federal/grayndler, /seats/vic/preston), `/mp/<name>`, `/party/<key>`, `/who/<advertiser>`, `/ad/<id>`. `https://election.computer/search?q=<name>` redirects straight to a single match.
- Spend is always a range ("$40K–$57K" means at least $40K, at most $57K) because Meta only publishes bands. Quote it as a range and say it covers Facebook and Instagram only.

## Main pages

- [Home](https://election.computer/index.md): this week's biggest ads, the biggest spenders and the Victorian race
- [Seats](https://election.computer/seats.md): every seat, with switches for each parliament
- [Politicians](https://election.computer/mps.md): every sitting member, by chamber
- [Parties](https://election.computer/parties.md): every party's members and ad spend
- [Who's spending](https://election.computer/who.md): every tracked advertiser ranked by spend
- [Ads](https://election.computer/ads.md): every ad, newest or biggest first
- [Victoria](https://election.computer/victoria.md): the 2026 Victorian state election race
- [How this works](https://election.computer/about.md): sources, method and limits

## For developers and agents

- [Developer guide](https://election.computer/developers.md): the JSON API, MCP server and Markdown pages
- [OpenAPI description](https://election.computer/api/openapi.json): the read-only JSON API
- [MCP server card](https://election.computer/mcp/server-card): connection details for https://election.computer/mcp
- [Agent skill](https://election.computer/.well-known/agent-skills/election-computer/SKILL.md): instructions for agents that load skills

## Optional

- [Sitemap](https://election.computer/sitemap.xml): every page, including every seat, politician and ad
- [API catalog](https://election.computer/.well-known/api-catalog): RFC 9727 linkset