The information below is intended for technical or production staff of media outlets who plan to download and access election unofficial results on election day, October 26, 2026.
It is suggested that you perform tests in advance of election day. No technical support will be available on October 26, 2026.
Any technical questions can be directed to Tharshan Sundaramoorthy, Manager, Toronto Elections at Tharshan.Sundaramoorthy@toronto.ca, Simon Leung, Project Manager Election Services at Simon.Leung@toronto.ca or Media Relations at media@toronto.ca.
The presentation below highlights how media representatives can access election night unofficial results data in a machine-readable format for their intended websites and broadcasts.
Remember to:
Election unofficial results files will be available in a machine-readable JSON file format.
Two election results file and a technical documentation is available:
Question: When will Advance Vote results be released?
Answer: Advance voting results will be released following the close of polls on election night. On election night, these unofficial results will be reported as aggregate ward-wide totals and will not identify results from individual voting places, including the advance voting places. Detailed results by voting place, including advance voting results, will be released after the City Clerk has certified the election results and posted to the City’s Open Data website. Advance voting places will be identified using subdivision numbers 98 and 99 within each ward. A list of voting places is available on the City’s Elections website.
Question: The filename is given as “unofficialresult.json”. Can you confirm that the filename will be the same on the night of the election? We just want to be sure it won’t be changing to “officialresult” or something like that. And once the results are complete, will there be a final data file with official results?
Answer: The filename will not change on election night.
Question: The JSON files are being stored in AWS, is there any caching on those files and how long is the cache set for? Do we need to apply a cache buster or something?
Answer: Result files are updated approximately every 60 seconds. Consumers should use ETags, Last-Modified headers, and Cache-Control directives to manage caching and detect updates efficiently. Applications can also use the JSON sequence (seq) value, which is timestamp-based, to determine whether new data has been published. Avoid unnecessary cache-busting techniques unless required by your platform.
Question: Will there be results file available but just with zeroed data until election night?
Answer: Unofficial results file with zeroed data will be posted on September 17, 2026 until election night.
Question: We have a workaround, but it seems the CORS policy on the data files doesn’t allow them to be accessed by other domains. Will you be updating the cross-domain policy?
Answer: No. Cross-origin requests to the results endpoint are not supported. Consumers should retrieve the results file from their own infrastructure, process the data as required, and publish it through their own applications, websites, or broadcast systems. This approach provides greater control over caching, resiliency, and availability.
Question: Will the election results be available at the exact same URL for both testing and election night?
Answer: Yes
Question: Does the candidate field reorganize itself based on votes received or does it stay in alphabetical order?
Answer: It will reorganize based on total votes received. If two or more candidates have the same number of votes, those will organize based on name.
Question: Are the total number of polls and total voters’ values in that feed accurate? In other words, can we pre-populate our system with these values now with the values in the feed or will these values change as we get closer to election day?
Answer: Both values are subject to change as we approach election day.
Question: I understand that the feed will activate at 8 p.m. on election day, after the polls close. I also understand that the feed will be updated every 60 seconds. But I can’t find when the feed will be turned off. Will it run until midnight.
Answer: On election day, the live JSON results files will be updated every 60 seconds, starting from 8 p.m. until all results have been received. There is no fixed end time. A zeroed unofficial results file was posted on September 17, 2026 for reference.
Question: I cannot find any mention in the documentation about rate limiting on the election results API. As we are testing, should we be mindful of how often we poll the API?
Answer: Reasonable rate limits and traffic controls are in place. The recommended approach is to retrieve the data, store or cache it locally, and serve it through your own application or website. Consumers should poll responsibly and design integrations to accommodate service protection controls, transient throttling, and network failures. Polling more frequently than the publication interval is not recommended.
Question: Are there any concerns related to retrieving the results files over HTTP vs HTTPS?
Answer: The files can be downloaded over Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) only. If your integration software attempts an unencrypted Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) connection to the mediaresults.toronto.ca site, the site responds with a redirect to the HTTPS version of the URL.
It is strongly recommended that you configure your integration software to use the HTTPS version of the URL. This improves security by ensuring the connection is always encrypted, and may improve your integration software’s system performance by reducing the number of requests. Doing so will also improve your resilience to certain types of internet service provider outages.