Derek Willis

Hi, I’m Derek. I love using data to find and tell stories. And asking questions.

Interviewing FEC Filings with llm-fecfile

Today I’m releasing a new Python command-line library that allows users to ask questions of federal campaign finance filings by leveraging large language models, with some…

How OpenElections Uses LLMs

In the 12-plus years that we’ve been turning official precinct election results into data at OpenElections, the single biggest problem has been converting pictures of…

Faith in Journalism

As the students drifted away from the Zoom call one-by-one, one young woman stuck around. This was during the pandemic, and who wanted to be on Zoom more than they already…