Govpack is a free “no code” WordPress plugin that enables you to easily publish dynamic profiles of elected officials and candidates for office.

It was originally developed by Fernando Diaz and first deployed during the 2020 election cycle for news sites hosted on Newspack.

Newspack has assumed responsibility for the continued development and support of the plugin for the 2024 election cycle, under the name Newspack Elections, with Knight Foundation support.

You can learn more about the plugin here. If you’d like to use the plugin for the 2024 election cycle, please fill out this form.

Modern workflows

Govpack leverages the Gutenberg block editor — making it easy and intuitive to present key candidate information.

Imports via CSV

Govpack supports uploading hundreds of profiles at once, saving countless hours of data entry.

Timeline

June 2024: Tell us you’re interested! We’re forming a cohort of newsrooms interested in creating voter guides with Govpack and are able to offer varying levels of support for these projects.

July-August 2024: Plan your voter guide and begin collecting candidate data, upload profiles and lay out voter guide pages.

September 2024: Update to the latest version of Govpack as new features become available.

Early October, 2024: Ramp up your engagement efforts.

Nov. 5, 2024: Election Day

Frequently asked questions

How much does Govpack cost?
Govpack is completely free and open source.

What are some examples of Govpack in the wild?
More than a dozen newsrooms used Govpack to create voter guides in the 2020 and 2022 election cycles, as well as the 2024 primary elections. They include Mountain State Spotlight, Berkleyside, San Antonio Report and AZ Luminaria.

How can you support my newsroom’s voter guide efforts?
We’re here to help! The Knight Foundation is also funding newsroom support, which means we’re also able to offer help with voter guide strategizing, research, data cleaning and design to a cohort of newsrooms, whether they’re on Newspack or not.

Can I use Govpack now?
Yes! The code can be downloaded here and installed just like any other WordPress plugin. We’ll be shipping updates throughout the summer that will offer newsrooms even more ways to customize candidates’ profile blocks.

If you need help, please fill out the form.

What can I do right now?
Plan your voter guide, start doing research and collect candidate data. The first step to a successful voter guide is deciding the scope — will you include all of the candidates in a city, county, region or state? There are a number of excellent resources at the Knight Election Hub.

All of the candidate data that will ultimately fill out a Govpack profile and blocks needs to be cleaned and organized in a spreadsheet. Here’s a CSV template you can copy to make uploading profiles easier. There’s also a lot of key voter information that isn’t candidate-specific, such as registration deadlines, polling place details and other “how to vote” frequently asked questions. You should start gathering that information as soon as possible.

How do I sign up to be part of the 2024 Govpack cohort?
Fill out this survey by June 30, 2024.