Decision Desk HQ runs a full-scale integration environment — a production-identical copy of our election results stack, loaded with every race we cover — so election night is rehearsed, not improvised.
What you can test
he integration environment serves the same endpoints as production, so you can validate your full pipeline end to end: authentication and token refresh, race and candidate lookups, vote totals, race calls, and your own error handling and retry behavior.
Because race IDs and candidate IDs match production, the races you wire up in integration are the same races you'll receive on election night. No remapping when you cut over.
Scheduled test events
Ahead of each election, we run scheduled test events in the integration environment. During a test event, DDHQ publishes results through the API exactly as we would on a live night:
- Vote totals update across races on a realistic reporting cadence, so you can confirm your integration picks up changes and refreshes correctly.
- Race calls are issued including advancing/runoff/multiple winner variants so you can verify how your product renders a call.
- Multiple races report at once, so you can test your system handling concurrent updates rather than one race at a time.
Test events are announced in advance with a window and a scope, so you know what to expect and when to have someone watching. They are the recommended way to validate an integration before your first live election.
To be included in an upcoming test event, contact your DDHQ representative.
Monitoring and support
The integration environment is monitored the same way production is, with its own dashboards, request tracing, and log retention. If something looks wrong during a test event, our team can trace your specific requests and tell you what happened.
Support during scheduled test events is handled through your normal DDHQ support channel.
All production products (client dashboard, votes broadcast, etc...) are avaliable on the integration environment for your team to use.
Frequently asked questions
Is integration data real?
Yes. Integration is restored from our production database, so it contains real races, candidates, offices, and historical results — not synthetic test fixtures.
Does integration include every race?
Yes, every race in our production database, with the same race IDs you'll use in production.
Is integration data live?
No. Integration is refreshed from production on a schedule, so it reflects production as of the last refresh. Live data movement happens during scheduled test events, when we publish results and race calls through the environment.
How do I join a test event?
Contact your DDHQ representative. Test events are announced in advance with a scheduled window.