Sources & data layers — districtry Virginia

This app is a reader over other people's data. It draws no boundary of its own and names no officeholder it cannot cite, so the useful question about any answer it gives is who published this, and when. That is what this page is for: the publishers the app credits as a whole, then one row per layer naming the source behind that layer specifically.

Not for legal or official use. Boundary and roster data come from public sources that explicitly disclaim legal precision. Always confirm district assignments and officeholders with the relevant government office before relying on them for anything official.

Sources last checked: October 29, 2026

Where a source publishes nothing, the app says so rather than guessing — the missing-data panel on the map is the standing list of what nobody publishes yet, and what would close each gap.

This page says where each answer comes from today.

Who publishes the data

The upstream publishers this app depends on, across all layers. Per-layer provenance is in the matrix below.

U.S. Census Bureau TIGERweb County, city, magisterial district, town, school-division, ZIP, congressional and state legislative district boundaries.
unitedstates/congress-legislators U.S. House roster (CC0).
Senate of Virginia Virginia Senate members, their parties, e-mail addresses and session offices.
Virginia House of Delegates House of Delegates members, their parties, e-mail addresses and Capitol offices.
USGS The National Map Police, fire and EMS stations and post offices (public domain).

The layer matrix

16 layers — 5 political and legislative, 2 public safety, 3 schools, 6 geography and amenities. Each row names the publisher the boundary comes from, where the names on the card come from, and the ground the layer actually answers on — outside that ground the layer hides itself rather than guessing.

Political & legislative 5 layers

Districts that elect somebody — from your ward to your seat in Congress.

Layer	What it answers	Boundary source	Who it names	Where it applies
U.S. House`us-house`	The U.S. House district covering the point, and the representative holding it.	U.S. Census TIGERweb — Legislative, layer 0 (120th Congressional Districts), pre-built for the state and shipped with the app; 11 features for Virginia, measured 2026-10-29. For Virginia it is the same map as layer 4 (119th Congressional Districts), district for district: the map the Supreme Court of Virginia adopted in December 2021, which stays in force for the 2026 election because that court struck down the 2026 redistricting amendment on 8 May 2026. The builder refuses to write if the two layers stop matching before 3 January 2027. Simplified by Douglas-Peucker at a 5 m interval and refused over an 8 m fidelity ceiling.	congress-roster.json, rebuilt weekly by CI from the public-domain unitedstates/congress-legislators dataset — including each member's district office and Washington office.	Virginia — statewide, all 11 districts.
Virginia Senate District`va-senate`	The Virginia Senate district covering the point, and the senator holding it.	U.S. Census TIGERweb — Legislative, layer 1 (2026 State Legislative Districts - Upper), pre-built for the state and shipped with the app; 40 features for Virginia, measured 2026-10-29: the Senate districts the Supreme Court of Virginia adopted in December 2021, first used in 2023. Simplified by Douglas-Peucker at a 5 m interval and refused over an 8 m fidelity ceiling.	va-senate-members.json, rebuilt weekly by CI from the Senate of Virginia's own member list and each senator's page: the name, the party, the e-mail address, and the session office in the General Assembly Building with its telephone. A vacant seat carries a record saying so.	Virginia — statewide, all 40 districts.
House of Delegates District`va-house`	The House of Delegates district covering the point, and the delegate holding it.	U.S. Census TIGERweb — Legislative, layer 2 (2026 State Legislative Districts - Lower), pre-built for the state and shipped with the app; 100 features for Virginia, measured 2026-10-29: the House districts the Supreme Court of Virginia adopted in December 2021, first used in 2023. Simplified by Douglas-Peucker at a 5 m interval and refused over an 8 m fidelity ceiling.	va-house-members.json, rebuilt weekly by CI from the Virginia House of Delegates' own member list and each delegate's page: the name, the party, the e-mail address, and the Capitol office in the General Assembly Building with its telephone. The member list showed District 20 as vacant on 2026-10-29, and a vacant seat carries a record saying so.	Virginia — statewide, all 100 districts.
Supervisor or Council District`supervisor-district`	The district a county supervisor or city council member is elected from at the point, and who holds the seat. In Norfolk the point is in a ward and a superward, and the card names both.	Virginia Department of Elections — its statewide layer of election districts and precincts (Districts_Union_Simplified, layer 0), last changed 2026-09-22 and read 2026-10-30: 7,271 pieces joined into the 2,531 precincts they name, where two precincts claimed the same ground each part given to the precinct of the county it lies in, and checked to cover each county and city; pre-built by va/scripts/build_va_precincts.py and shipped with the app, drawn to within 12 metres. Available to anyone under § 24.2-103.1 of the Code of Virginia, as the Department told this project on 2026-10-30. A district is the union of the precincts the layer puts in it, keyed by the layer's district number except in Southampton County (by name, its numbers being stale), Poquoson and Waynesboro (whose council districts the layer records as precincts); a district name the layer gets wrong is corrected against the name the election results give it. City of Norfolk — its two superwards (OpenData Maps, layer 8), from which two council members are elected; each Norfolk precinct lies at least 99.2% inside one, so each superward is drawn as the union of its precincts.	va-local-officials.json, read from the Department of Elections' results of every local contest (historical.elections.virginia.gov) by va/scripts/build_va_local_officials.py: the winner of the latest election to each seat, the card saying which election and linking its result. A seat a special election has filled since is named from the special election. A member appointed to a vacancy is not shown until an election fills the seat, and where the results do not settle who holds a seat the card names no one and says why.	Virginia — the 91 counties and 15 cities that elect their board or council by district. Arlington, Highland, Madison and Mathews counties and 23 cities elect at large; the layer is hidden there and the County or City card names the members.
Tribal Government`tribal-government`	Whether this address is on tribal land, and which nation's government answers for it — Virginia has 3 such areas, held by the Pamunkey Indian Tribe, the Mattaponi Tribe and the Rappahannock Tribe.	US Census Bureau TIGERweb AIANNHA, current vintage — state reservations and off-reservation trust land, shipped with the app	Each nation's council from that nation's own page, read weekly by scripts/tribal_council_scraper.py and dated on the card: the Pamunkey Indian Tribe's Chief, Assistant Chief and six council members (pamunkey.org) and the Mattaponi Tribe's Chief, Assistant Chief and seven council members (mattaponi.gov). The Rappahannock Tribe's own site names no council, so its card names only its Chief and Assistant Chief, from the Secretary of the Commonwealth's list of state-recognized tribes (also read weekly), and says the rest of its council is not named. The government, its seat and its website come from the Bureau of Indian Affairs' tribal leaders directory (data/bia-tribal-governments.json), except the Mattaponi Tribe's, which the Bureau does not list because the tribe is recognized by the Commonwealth and not by the federal government: its name, seat and website come from the Secretary of the Commonwealth's list of state-recognized tribes, and the card says so. The land is joined to the government by this project's own data/tribal-government-join.json.	Virginia — the three pieces of land above, in King William, King and Queen and Essex counties. Every other point in the state is on no tribal land the Census draws for a government: Virginia's other recognized tribes hold no reservation or trust land the Census draws.

Public safety 2 layers

Who answers a call at this address, and where they answer it from.

Layer	What it answers	Boundary source	Who it names	Where it applies
Police Station`police-station`	The three nearest police stations to the point, by straight-line distance, with each one's address.	USGS The National Map — structures layer 53 (Police Stations), queried live at runtime by a bounding envelope through the paged loader. Public domain. Measured 2026-10-29: 998 points in Virginia's envelope, under the service's 2,000-record cap today, and paged anyway so that stops being a fact anyone has to re-check.	NO OFFICEHOLDER, AND NONE IS MISSING: a police station is a facility, not an elected district. Nobody is elected from one.	Virginia — plus the border strip its envelope necessarily includes. A BUILDING, NOT A JURISDICTION: which agency answers at a given point is a service-area question this instance has not been researched for, so the card says where the nearest are and never who serves you. Nearest-three is a proximity fact, so for a reader near the state line the nearest one really may be in a neighbouring state, and the card's intro says these are straight-line distances.
Fire & EMS Station`fire-station`	The three nearest fire and EMS stations to the point, by straight-line distance, with each one's address.	USGS The National Map — structures layer 51 (Fire Stations/EMS Stations), queried live at runtime by a bounding envelope through the paged loader. Public domain. Measured 2026-10-29: 2,330 points in Virginia's envelope, more than the service's 2,000-record cap, which is why the paging is not optional.	NO OFFICEHOLDER, AND NONE IS MISSING: a fire and EMS station is a facility, not an elected district. Nobody is elected from one.	Virginia — plus the border strip its envelope necessarily includes. A BUILDING, NOT A JURISDICTION: which agency answers at a given point is a service-area question this instance has not been researched for, so the card says where the nearest are and never who serves you. Nearest-three is a proximity fact, so for a reader near the state line the nearest one really may be in a neighbouring state, and the card's intro says these are straight-line distances.

Schools 3 layers

The district, the attendance zone, and the schools nearest the point.

Layer	What it answers	Boundary source	Who it names	Where it applies
School Division`school-district-unified`	The public school division covering the point.	U.S. Census TIGERweb — School, layer 0 (unified school districts), copied into a tile archive served from this site, re-fetched from the Census weekly; 135 features for Virginia, measured 2026-10-29.	THE CARD NAMES THE DIVISION ONLY. Its school board's members are named on the County or City card and, where they are elected by district, on the School Board District card, from the state's election results.	Virginia — every point outside the City of Lexington. The two tilings partition the state: their Census land areas sum to exactly the 133-county-and-city total (102,256 km2), measured 2026-10-29. TIGERweb's secondary tiling is empty for Virginia (0 features).
School Board District`school-board-district`	The district a school board member is elected from at the point, and who holds the seat. In Norfolk the point is in a ward and a superward, and the card names both.	Virginia Department of Elections — its statewide layer of election districts and precincts (Districts_Union_Simplified, layer 0), last changed 2026-09-22 and read 2026-10-30: 7,271 pieces joined into the 2,531 precincts they name, where two precincts claimed the same ground each part given to the precinct of the county it lies in, and checked to cover each county and city; pre-built by va/scripts/build_va_precincts.py and shipped with the app, drawn to within 12 metres. Available to anyone under § 24.2-103.1 of the Code of Virginia, as the Department told this project on 2026-10-30. A school board district is the union of the precincts the layer puts in it; in 88 counties and 10 cities the school board is elected from the same districts as the supervisors or council. City of Norfolk — its two superwards (OpenData Maps, layer 8), from which two school board members are elected; each Norfolk precinct lies at least 99.2% inside one, so each superward is drawn as the union of its precincts.	va-local-officials.json, read from the Department of Elections' results of every local contest (historical.elections.virginia.gov) by va/scripts/build_va_local_officials.py: the winner of the latest election to each seat, the card saying which election and linking its result. A seat a special election has filled since is named from the special election. A member appointed to a vacancy is not shown until an election fills the seat, and where the results do not settle who holds a seat the card names no one and says why.	Virginia — the 88 counties and 10 cities whose school board is elected by district. Elsewhere the board is elected at large or appointed, which the County or City card says; the layer is hidden there.
School Division (Elementary)`school-district-elementary`	The elementary school division covering the point, where the point is in one.	U.S. Census TIGERweb — School, layer 2 (elementary school districts), copied into a tile archive served from this site, re-fetched from the Census weekly; one feature for Virginia, Lexington City Public Schools, measured 2026-10-29.	THE CARD NAMES THE DIVISION ONLY. Lexington's school board is elected at large and named on the County or City card, from the state's election results.	Virginia — the City of Lexington only. Everywhere else the School Division card is the answer.

Geography & amenities 6 layers

The boundaries that place an address without electing anyone, plus the nearest public services.

Layer	What it answers	Boundary source	Who it names	Where it applies
County or City`county`	Which county or independent city contains the point.	U.S. Census TIGERweb — State_County, layer 1, pre-built for the state and shipped with the app; 133 features (95 counties and 38 independent cities, which the Census Bureau files as county equivalents), measured 2026-10-29. Simplified by Douglas-Peucker at a 5 m interval and refused over an 8 m fidelity ceiling.	Who governs it: the board of supervisors or city council, the school board where it is elected, and a city's elected mayor, named from va-local-officials.json — the Department of Elections' results of the elections that seated them (historical.elections.virginia.gov), each member's card saying which election and linking its result. Where a body is elected by district the card names everyone and the district layers say which member represents the point. A member appointed to a vacancy is not shown until an election fills the seat, and where the results do not settle who holds a seat the card names no one and says why. Where a school board is appointed the card says so and names no one. The soil and water conservation district covering the county or city is named from the Department of Conservation and Recreation's list (dcr.virginia.gov), with the directors its voters elected from the same results, in va-conservation-boards.json; the two directors each board has appointed are not named.	Virginia — statewide, all 95 counties and 38 independent cities.
Magisterial District`county-subdivision`	The magisterial district containing the point and its county, drawn from the Department of Elections' current lines in the 72 counties whose census subdivisions are their election districts, and as the Census Bureau maps it elsewhere.	U.S. Census TIGERweb — Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD, layer 1 (county subdivisions), read 2026-10-30 and pre-built by va/scripts/build_va_magisterial_districts.py, drawn to within 12 metres and shipped with the app: 552 features for Virginia, 513 magisterial districts in 94 counties, every one recorded with no government of its own; the 38 independent cities; and Arlington County, which the Census does not divide. Its names, and its lines outside the 72 counties below. Virginia Department of Elections — its statewide layer of election districts and precincts (Districts_Union_Simplified, layer 0), through va-local-districts.json: in the 72 counties whose census subdivisions and election districts are one set of names (Adam's choice of 2026-10-22), each magisterial district is the Department's district inside the county's census ground, so its lines are the precincts' lines, drawn to within 12 metres. Available to anyone under § 24.2-103.1 of the Code of Virginia, as the Department told this project on 2026-10-30.	NO OFFICEHOLDER, AND THE CARD SAYS WHY. A magisterial district has no government of its own. In the 72 counties drawn from the Department's lines the card says the district is the one the board of supervisors is elected from and points to the Supervisor or Council District card, which names the member; in the 19 counties whose election districts differ from the Census's copy it says the lines are not the election districts; in Highland, Madison and Mathews it says the board is elected at large. Which bodies a county elects by district is read from va-local-officials.json.	Virginia — statewide, all 552 records.
ZIP Code`zip-code`	The ZIP Code Tabulation Area covering the point — the Census Bureau's areal approximation of the USPS delivery routes sharing a ZIP code, not a postal boundary.	U.S. Census TIGERweb — ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, layer 11 of the PUMA/TAD/TAZ/UGA/ZCTA service, copied into a tile archive served from this site, re-fetched from the Census weekly. ZCTAs carry NO STATE FIELD because they cross state lines, so this is the one TIGERweb layer here fetched by a bounding ENVELOPE rather than STATE='51'. 2,609 features in Virginia's box, measured 2026-10-29.	NO OFFICEHOLDER, AND NONE IS MISSING: a ZIP code is a mail-routing convenience, not a unit of government, so nobody is elected from one. The card says what the boundary actually is rather than leaving a reader to assume it means more.	Virginia. The layer is hidden outside the state outline, because outside it the Census's point query answers with a neighbouring state's real ZIP code.
Voting Precinct`voting-precinct`	The voting precinct containing the point, and the county or city it is in.	Virginia Department of Elections — its statewide layer of election districts and precincts (Districts_Union_Simplified, layer 0), last changed 2026-09-22 and read 2026-10-30: 7,271 pieces joined into the 2,531 precincts they name, where two precincts claimed the same ground each part given to the precinct of the county it lies in, and checked to cover each county and city; pre-built by va/scripts/build_va_precincts.py and shipped with the app, drawn to within 12 metres. Available to anyone under § 24.2-103.1 of the Code of Virginia, as the Department told this project on 2026-10-30.	NO OFFICEHOLDER, and none is missing. A precinct elects nobody; it is where a voter's ballot is cast and counted. The card links the Department of Elections' lookup for the polling place.	Virginia — statewide, all 133 counties and cities.
City or Town`municipality`	The independent city or town containing the point, if any.	U.S. Census TIGERweb — Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD, layer 4 (incorporated places), copied into a tile archive served from this site, re-fetched from the Census weekly; 227 features for Virginia (38 independent cities and 189 towns), every one recorded as an active government, measured 2026-10-29.	A city's council, elected mayor and school board are named from va-local-officials.json, the same entry its County or City card reads. Each of the 189 towns has its council and mayor named from the same results, or from the town's own page where the results do not settle the council; a council still not settled (the town elects by ward, or a special election filled a seat) names no one and says why (gap va-municipal-officeholders).	Virginia — statewide. A point in a county outside every town is not in any city or town, which the card states.
Post Office`post-office`	The three nearest post offices to the point, by straight-line distance, with each one's address.	USGS The National Map — structures layer 38 (Post Offices), queried live at runtime by a bounding envelope through the paged loader. Public domain. Measured 2026-10-29: 2,241 points in Virginia's envelope, more than the service's 2,000-record cap, which is why the paging is not optional.	NO OFFICEHOLDER, AND NONE IS MISSING: a post office is a facility, not an elected district. Nobody is elected from one.	Virginia — plus the border strip its envelope necessarily includes. Nearest-three is a proximity fact, so for a reader near the state line the nearest one really may be in a neighbouring state, and the card's intro says these are straight-line distances.