Sources
Everything on this site comes from one of the datasets below. Each entry says who publishes it, why it is here, how much of it this site holds, and where to get it yourself. Nothing is scraped from a source that is not listed.
This page is generated, not maintained by hand. It is built from the same data files that feed every chart on the site, and the volumes and date ranges in each entry are measured from those files rather than typed. When a dataset is added to the site it appears here in the same build; if it were added without an explanation of why it is included, the build would stop rather than publish an unexplained source.
How the datasets break down
Every dataset sits under the body that publishes it. A pill jumps to its full entry below.
State
Maine Secretary of State2
Maine Department of Education1
Town of Durham, Maine
Meeting recordings and written minutes
What the boards actually said, as opposed to what the minutes summarise. Each recording carries a machine transcript with a timestamp on every phrase, so a claim about a meeting can be opened at the second it was said and checked by ear.
349 of 354 recorded meetings, 626.3 hours · 5 recorded but unreadable · 349 summarised · 186 with an attendance record · 1190 motions located
Used on Meetings
- Data as of
- 25 August 2026 — the date of the newest recorded meeting in the index
- Retrieved
- 2 September 2026
- Records
- 349 meetings indexed
- Exact sources
- Pipeline
- commit 359df26-dirty, written 8 September 2026
- video, transcript and summary ids must align
- every timestamp must fall within its recording
Source & method
Town of Durham meeting recordings, YouTube auto-captions, and the town's written minutes
Captions cleaned into timestamped transcripts; topics and motions found by pattern matching; summaries written by a language model and required to cite the second each item begins. Every name attached to speech is checked against the attendance list in the minutes, and marked (?) where no record confirms it
https://www.youtube.com/@durhammaine/videos
Data as of 25 August 2026 (the date of the newest recorded meeting in the index); retrieved 2 September 2026.
Town documents and meeting video
The town's own record of itself: pages, agendas, minutes, budgets and ordinances, plus video of the meetings those documents summarise. Everything else on this site exists to put this material in context.
740 documents (769 files before 29 duplicates were removed), 6,403 pages, 1.89M words, 93 read by OCR · 355 videos, 628.9 hours
Used on Homepage totals, Search
- durhammaine.gov: the official town site
- Sitemap: the ingest is driven from it, because the site has no real 404 and every other URL returns a page whether it exists or not
- Town meeting video: captions are fetched and, where YouTube produced none, the audio is transcribed locally; no video is redistributed
- Data as of
- 1 September 2026 — the newer of the documents and meetings dates
- Retrieved
- 7 September 2026
- Records
- 740 distinct documents after deduplication
- Exact sources
- Pipeline
- commit 359df26-dirty, written 8 September 2026
- byte-identical duplicates removed before counting
Source & method
durhammaine.gov and the town's YouTube channel
782 PDF files text-extracted, 96 of them via OCR (counts of files on disk, before deduplication). The coverage figures count documents: 740 distinct PDFs remain once 29 byte-identical duplicates are removed, 93 of them image-only. Videos enumerated, not downloaded
https://durhammaine.gov/documents
Data as of 1 September 2026 (the newer of the documents and meetings dates); retrieved 7 September 2026.
Town document library
The town's own paper record: minutes, budgets, ordinances, policies, audits and applications. Nearly a hundred of them are image-only scans, which the town publishes but which no search engine can read; the text is extracted here so a resident can find the document that mentions their road.
345 documents in 51 categories · 335 with text extracted, 52 of them by OCR · 1.22M words
Used on Documents
- Data as of
- 1 September 2026 — the newest posting date the town gives a listed document
- Retrieved
- 7 September 2026
- Records
- 345 documents catalogued
- Exact sources
- Pipeline
- commit 359df26-dirty, written 8 September 2026
- every file on the official listing is catalogued or excepted with a reason
- slugs and source URLs are unique
Source & method
Town of Durham document library, durhammaine.gov
Catalogued from the town's own document listings and page attachments; text extracted with pdftotext, or by OCR where the file is an image-only scan. The town's copy is authoritative and every entry links to it
https://durhammaine.gov/documents
Data as of 1 September 2026 (the newest posting date the town gives a listed document); retrieved 7 September 2026.
Departments, committees and meeting schedules
When each board meets, as the town's own pages give it. Read at ingest rather than retyped, so it carries what durhammaine.gov publishes and nothing else.
23 departments, committees and services · 15 with a phone number · 17 with an email · 4 stating when they meet
Used on Meetings
- Data as of
- 30 July 2026 — the oldest crawl date among the pages read; the town states no date of its own
- Retrieved
- 7 September 2026
- Records
- 23 departments, committees and services
- Exact sources
- Pipeline
- commit 359df26-dirty, written 8 September 2026
- read from the town's pages at ingest, not curated
Source & method
durhammaine.gov department and committee pages
Contact details and meeting cadence read from the town's own pages at ingest; not curated or verified against any other source
https://durhammaine.gov
Data as of 30 July 2026 (the oldest crawl date among the pages read; the town states no date of its own); retrieved 7 September 2026.
Annual tax commitment book
The assessor's own list of every taxable account: owner, mailing address, acreage, exemptions and tax billed. It is the only record that shows who owns the town rather than what the town is worth in total, and it is what makes the concentration of value visible. Aggregates and the largest owners are published here; the full per-account table is not.
2,129 real estate accounts, 2027 · $394.8M assessed · 275 billed outside Durham
Used on Taxes
- Data as of
- 11 August 2026 — the commitment date printed on the 2027 books
- Retrieved
- 7 September 2026
- Records
- 2,158 accounts in the 2027 books
- Exact sources
- Pipeline
- commit 359df26-dirty, written 8 September 2026
- every vintage must reproduce its book's own Final Totals line exactly, or it is rejected
- the per-account block parse must match the line parse on count, assessment and tax
Source & method
Town of Durham, 2027 Real Estate Tax Commitment Book (committed 2026-08-11)
Each account's full block parsed (owner, co-owners, mailing address, acreage and exemptions), then aggregated by owner. The parse is accepted only when it reproduces the book's own Final Totals line and the line-by-line read exactly. Aggregates and largest owners are published; the per-account table is not
https://durhammaine.gov/uploads/2027-real-estate-commitment-book.pdf
Data as of 11 August 2026 (the commitment date printed on the 2027 books); retrieved 7 September 2026.
Audited statements, budget workbook and town meeting reports
What the town's own books say: where each tax dollar goes between the school district, the county and the town; the mil rate the auditors record each year; what the town takes in besides property tax; what it owes and when it is paid off; and how much it holds in reserve. None of it is in any state dataset.
mil rate from audited levy notes 2017–2024 · tax split 2021–2027 · unassigned fund balance 2017–2024 · debt 2018–2024, amortised to 2029 · 11 town documents read
Used on Homepage, At a Glance
- Data as of
- 13 May 2026 — the 'As of' date printed on the FY2027 budget workbook, the newest document read
- Retrieved
- 31 July 2026
- Records
- 25 year-rows across the mil rate, tax split, fund balance and debt series
- Exact sources
- Pipeline
- commit 359df26-dirty, written 8 September 2026
- every document's own totals must reproduce or it is rejected
- the audited 2024 mil rate must equal the 2024 commitment book's
- every figure carries the page, table, row and column it was read from
Source & method
Town of Durham audited financial statements, FY2027 budget workbook, tax assessment history and Select Board town meeting reports
Each figure located by its labelled line in the extracted text of the town's own PDF and carried with its page, table, row and column. A document is published only when its own totals reproduce: the assessment sheet's parts sum to its totals, each levy note's assessed value times rate reproduces its commitment, the audited statements' lines sum to their total lines, the budget's sources plus levy plus fund balance equal its requirements, and the debt schedule's principal sums to the balance outstanding. Nothing is normalised: the 18-month FY2026 is shown as billed
https://durhammaine.gov/documents
Data as of 13 May 2026 (the 'As of' date printed on the FY2027 budget workbook, the newest document read); retrieved 31 July 2026.
Maine Secretary of State
Voter enrollment by municipality
Registered and enrolled voter counts by municipality, which is the only continuous record of Durham's political composition. Town election results are not published in machine-readable form; these files are.
31 reporting dates, 2007–2026 · 10 parties · 8 towns
Used on Voting
- Data as of
- 7 March 2026 — the 'as of' date the Secretary of State prints beside the newest file
- Retrieved
- 31 July 2026
- Records
- 31 reporting dates published
- Exact sources
- Pipeline
- commit 359df26-dirty, written 8 September 2026
- party columns mapped by header name, never by position
- dates taken from the publisher's own 'as of' markers, not filenames
- a (date, status) pair is read from one file only
Source & method
Maine Secretary of State, Registered & Enrolled Voter files
58 files parsed by column header (six different party schemas); dates taken from the SoS page's own 'As of' markers, not filenames
https://www.maine.gov/sos/elections-voting/voter-data
Data as of 7 March 2026 (the 'as of' date the Secretary of State prints beside the newest file); retrieved 31 July 2026.
Referendum results by municipality
Statewide ballot questions tabulated by municipality, so how Durham voted on each one can be separated from how Maine did.
57 ballot questions, 2011–2025 · 27 approved, 30 rejected
Used on Voting
- Data as of
- 9 June 2026 — the election date of the newest tabulation used
- Retrieved
- 2 September 2026
- Records
- 57 ballot questions Durham voted on
- Exact sources
- Pipeline
- commit 359df26-dirty, written 8 September 2026
- yes/no counts recompute every percentage and outcome
- election dates resolved from the publisher's own pages
Source & method
Maine Secretary of State, referendum tabulations by municipality, and the Citizen's Guide to each referendum election
Durham rows extracted from SoS result spreadsheets; percentages recomputed from raw counts (the files' own % columns are fractions). Ballot wording read from the Citizen's Guide the Secretary of State published for each election, matched by election date and question number; the 2016 guide is the state's own file as preserved by the Internet Archive, the state no longer serving it. County questions are not in the guides and carry no wording
https://www.maine.gov/sos/elections-voting/election-results-data
Data as of 9 June 2026 (the election date of the newest tabulation used); retrieved 2 September 2026.
Maine Revenue Services
State valuation and full-value tax rates
The state's independent valuation of every municipality, and the full-value tax rate derived from it. A mil rate applies to a town's own assessed values and cannot be compared between towns; the full-value rate can, which is why this source is here rather than the town's own rate alone.
state valuation 2007–2026 · full-value rates 2000–2024 · 8 towns compared
Used on Taxes
- Data as of
- 2024 — the newest full-value rate year; state valuation runs to 2026
- Retrieved
- 31 July 2026
- Records
- 25 years of full-value rates for Durham
- Exact sources
- Pipeline
- commit 359df26-dirty, written 8 September 2026
- rates read from the workbook's own year header
- valuation normalised to dollars where the source switches units
Source & method
Maine Revenue Services, State Valuation History and Full Value Tax Rates
State valuation normalised to dollars (the source states 2025-2026 in dollars and earlier years in thousands); full-value rates read from the workbook's own year header, which carries 2000-2024 despite the download being labelled 2013-2024
https://www.maine.gov/revenue/taxes/property-tax/municipal-services
Data as of 2024 (the newest full-value rate year; state valuation runs to 2026); retrieved 31 July 2026.
Maine Department of Education
ED279 school funding reports
Durham funds RSU 5 jointly with Freeport and Pownal, so what the town pays for schools is not visible in any town document. Section 4 of the ED279 is the only place the district's funding is split by member municipality.
FY2014–FY2027, 14 fiscal years · 3 member towns
Used on Schools
- Data as of
- FY2027 — the newest fiscal year whose ED279 report balances
- Retrieved
- 2 August 2026
- Records
- 14 fiscal years published
- Exact sources
- Pipeline
- commit 359df26-dirty, written 8 September 2026
- a fiscal year is published only when six Section 4 identities balance to the cent
Source & method
Maine DOE ED279 Essential Programs and Services allocation reports, FY2014-FY2027
Section 4 read positionally, never label-then-next-number (one label in Section 5A heads three columns). A fiscal year is published only when six internal identities balance to the cent, including that the municipal allocations and pupil counts sum to the district totals
https://www.maine.gov/doe/funding/gpa/currentfy
Data as of FY2027 (the newest fiscal year whose ED279 report balances); retrieved 2 August 2026.
U.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey, 5-year estimates
Population, income, housing and education, and the only source here that measures residents rather than transactions. It is also the only one that is a survey: each figure is an estimate with a margin of error, and the margins are wide enough in a town this size to decide what can be said at all.
12 ACS 5-year vintages, 2013–2024 · 8 towns · every estimate carries its margin of error
Used on People
- Data as of
- 2024 — the newest ACS 5-year vintage (2020-2024)
- Retrieved
- 7 September 2026
- Records
- 12 ACS 5-year vintages
- Exact sources
- Pipeline
- commit 359df26-dirty, written 8 September 2026
- every estimate fetched with its margin of error
- changes tested only between non-overlapping windows
- jammed sentinel values read as missing, not as numbers
Source & method
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2013-2024
Durham is a county subdivision (23-001-19105), not a place. Every estimate carries its published 90% margin of error; differences are called real only when they exceed the combined margin, and only between non-overlapping 5-year windows
https://api.census.gov/data/2024/acs/acs5
Data as of 2024 (the newest ACS 5-year vintage (2020-2024)); retrieved 7 September 2026.
What is deliberately not here
Some things this project holds are not published, and the reasons are worth stating.
The full tax commitment book. It lists the name and assessed value attached to every property in Durham. The Taxes page reports totals, the largest owners and the most valuable parcels, the same figures read aloud when the town commits its taxes. The complete account-by-account table is not published, because turning a public record into a searchable index of who owns what and what it is worth is a decision that should be made deliberately, not by default.
Model codes published by trade bodies. The town adopts several by reference and hosts copies. They are catalogued here and linked to the town's copy, but their text is not reproduced.
Video itself. Captions are fetched and, where the town's recording had none, the audio is transcribed locally; the transcripts are published in full. No video file is copied or re-hosted; every timestamp links back to the town's own channel.
Where a document could not be verified against its own source, it is left out rather than published with a caveat.
