Using Tinderbox to track election prospects

Tutorials and Examples
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I’ve been using Tinderbox to store and track information about this year’s US Senate elections, and included this file as an example that shows using agents, action code, and attributes to help understand a complicated topic.

USSenate2026.tbx (630.7 KB)

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Thanks for this. A few observations…

The pCandidate $Rule for colouring needs a tweak as there are independents (ME, VT( the require the default colour else they all default to Republican colouring.

As non-US user I was a bit confused until I realised the green-background† seats are the only ones in play. Thus, the “US Senate 120th” container’s secondary sort ($SortAlso) might better be set to $UpForReelection2026 (in reverse). That way, all the seat up for re-election sort at the top of the container, with the battleground seats sorting first. FWIW, the sort within a given $SortAlso is on $Name. IOW, the third level sort auto-defaults to $Name‡.

Also 3 states seem uncontested (incumbent running unopposed) in CO, ID, and SD. NE has three contestants (2 Republican): is that a mistake or is the nomination not finalised?

†. I’d suggest explaining the reason for the colouring in the README.

‡. Not tested fully. It *might8 be $DisplayName rather than $Name. Thus, a Display Expression might alter the tertiary sort order.

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NE has (1) a Republican incumbent, (2) an Independent opponent, and (3) a Democratic nominee who has bowed out in favor of the Independent.

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With one day to go before US elections, I have updated this Tinderbox file and attempted to incorporate the modifications suggested.

USSenate2026.tbx (902.1 KB)

In addition to late-breaking polling results, I’ve added a Commentary container to hold notes with interesting election information and comments.

I’m certain that Tinderbox is the only application that could accomplish this goal so effectively. The combination of easy import, prototypes and action code have made analysis simple and compelling.

Also, this document is a learning tool; I’m convinced that examining the prototypes, action code, stamps, and other characteristics will boost the Tinderbox literacy of anyone new to the program–it certainly has done the for me!

We’ll know this week how this election turns out … but I’ll be using this Tinderbox file throughout to track the results.

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