CAPTCHA Handling for Public Records Search Automation

Public records portals — court systems, county assessors, secretary of state filings, vital records databases — rely heavily on Image and OCR CAPTCHAs. These portals often use older CAPTCHA implementations with distorted text, math problems, or custom image challenges. Here's how to handle them across different record types.

Common CAPTCHA Types by Portal

Public Records Search with CAPTCHA Solving

import requests
import base64
import time
from urllib.parse import urljoin

class PublicRecordsSearcher:
    def __init__(self, api_key):
        self.api_key = api_key
        self.session = requests.Session()
        self.session.headers.update({
            "User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36"
        })

    def search_court_records(self, portal_url, case_number):
        """Search court records, solving image CAPTCHAs as needed."""
        # Load the search page
        page = self.session.get(f"{portal_url}/search")

        # Extract CAPTCHA image
        captcha_img_url = self._extract_captcha_url(page.text, portal_url)
        if not captcha_img_url:
            # No CAPTCHA on this page
            return self._submit_search(portal_url, case_number)

        # Download and solve CAPTCHA
        img_response = self.session.get(captcha_img_url)
        captcha_text = self._solve_image_captcha(img_response.content)

        # Submit search with solved CAPTCHA
        return self._submit_search(portal_url, case_number, captcha_text)

    def _extract_captcha_url(self, html, base_url):
        from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
        soup = BeautifulSoup(html, "html.parser")

        # Look for common CAPTCHA image patterns
        captcha_img = (
            soup.find("img", {"id": "captchaImage"}) or
            soup.find("img", {"class": "captcha"}) or
            soup.find("img", attrs={"src": lambda s: s and "captcha" in s.lower()})
        )

        if captcha_img and captcha_img.get("src"):
            return urljoin(base_url, captcha_img["src"])
        return None

    def _solve_image_captcha(self, image_bytes):
        img_base64 = base64.b64encode(image_bytes).decode("utf-8")

        resp = requests.post("https://ocr.captchaai.com/in.php", data={
            "key": self.api_key,
            "method": "base64",
            "body": img_base64,
            "json": 1
        })
        task_id = resp.json()["request"]

        for _ in range(30):
            time.sleep(3)
            result = requests.get("https://ocr.captchaai.com/res.php", params={
                "key": self.api_key,
                "action": "get",
                "id": task_id,
                "json": 1
            })
            data = result.json()
            if data["status"] == 1:
                return data["request"]

        raise TimeoutError("CAPTCHA solve timed out")

    def _submit_search(self, portal_url, case_number, captcha_text=None):
        form_data = {"caseNumber": case_number}
        if captcha_text:
            form_data["captcha"] = captcha_text

        response = self.session.post(
            f"{portal_url}/search/results",
            data=form_data
        )
        return response.text

# Usage
searcher = PublicRecordsSearcher("YOUR_API_KEY")
results = searcher.search_court_records(
    "https://courts.example.gov",
    "2024-CV-12345"
)

Math CAPTCHA Handling

Some government portals use simple math CAPTCHAs. CaptchaAI handles these as text recognition:

def solve_math_captcha(self, image_bytes):
    """Solve math CAPTCHAs like '4 + 7 = ?'"""
    img_base64 = base64.b64encode(image_bytes).decode("utf-8")

    resp = requests.post("https://ocr.captchaai.com/in.php", data={
        "key": self.api_key,
        "method": "base64",
        "body": img_base64,
        "textinstructions": "solve the math equation and return only the number",
        "json": 1
    })
    task_id = resp.json()["request"]

    # Poll for result
    for _ in range(30):
        time.sleep(3)
        result = requests.get("https://ocr.captchaai.com/res.php", params={
            "key": self.api_key,
            "action": "get",
            "id": task_id,
            "json": 1
        })
        data = result.json()
        if data["status"] == 1:
            return data["request"]

    raise TimeoutError("Math CAPTCHA solve timed out")

Multi-Portal Search (JavaScript)

class RecordsAggregator {
  constructor(apiKey) {
    this.apiKey = apiKey;
  }

  async searchAcrossPortals(query, portals) {
    const results = [];

    for (const portal of portals) {
      try {
        const data = await this.searchPortal(portal, query);
        results.push({ portal: portal.name, records: data });
      } catch (error) {
        results.push({ portal: portal.name, error: error.message });
      }
    }

    return results;
  }

  async searchPortal(portal, query) {
    const pageResponse = await fetch(portal.searchUrl);
    const html = await pageResponse.text();

    // Check for image CAPTCHA
    const captchaMatch = html.match(/captcha[^"]*\.(?:png|jpg|gif)/i);
    let captchaAnswer = null;

    if (captchaMatch) {
      const imgUrl = new URL(captchaMatch[0], portal.searchUrl).href;
      const imgData = await fetch(imgUrl);
      const buffer = await imgData.arrayBuffer();
      const base64 = Buffer.from(buffer).toString('base64');

      captchaAnswer = await this.solveImageCaptcha(base64);
    }

    // Submit search
    const formData = new URLSearchParams({ q: query });
    if (captchaAnswer) formData.append('captcha', captchaAnswer);

    const response = await fetch(portal.searchUrl, {
      method: 'POST',
      body: formData
    });

    return response.text();
  }

  async solveImageCaptcha(base64Image) {
    const submitResp = await fetch('https://ocr.captchaai.com/in.php', {
      method: 'POST',
      body: new URLSearchParams({
        key: this.apiKey,
        method: 'base64',
        body: base64Image,
        json: '1'
      })
    });

    const { request: taskId } = await submitResp.json();

    for (let i = 0; i < 30; i++) {
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 3000));
      const result = await fetch(
        `https://ocr.captchaai.com/res.php?key=${this.apiKey}&action=get&id=${taskId}&json=1`
      );
      const data = await result.json();
      if (data.status === 1) return data.request;
    }

    throw new Error('CAPTCHA solve timed out');
  }
}

// Usage
const aggregator = new RecordsAggregator('YOUR_API_KEY');
const results = await aggregator.searchAcrossPortals('Smith LLC', [
  { name: 'State Business Registry', searchUrl: 'https://sos.example.gov/search' },
  { name: 'County Court Records', searchUrl: 'https://courts.example.gov/search' }
]);

CAPTCHA Parameters for Government Portals

Troubleshooting

FAQ

Why do government portals still use image CAPTCHAs?

Many government systems run legacy software that predates reCAPTCHA and Cloudflare Turnstile. Custom image CAPTCHAs were the standard when these systems were built, and updates are slow in government IT.

How accurate is CaptchaAI for distorted text CAPTCHAs?

CaptchaAI supports over 27,500 image CAPTCHA types with high accuracy. For heavily distorted text, use the textinstructions parameter to guide recognition — for example, "letters and numbers, no spaces."

Should I preprocess CAPTCHA images before submitting?

Preprocessing (grayscale, contrast boost, noise removal) can improve accuracy for very low-quality images. See the image preprocessing guide for techniques.

Next Steps

Automate public records searches — get your CaptchaAI API key and handle government portal CAPTCHAs.