Research Guides: Campaigns & Elections: Election Statistics & Data

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Search the content of all free websites listed in this research guide. Content in Harvard subscription databases and print books are not included.

Federal Election Statistics & Data - Harvard Databases

CQ Voting & Elections Collection (Harvard Login)
Historical data on elections (presidential, congressional and gubernatorial), campaign finances, voter demographics, voter turnout, and political parties.

Expert analysis, demographics, and data.

Dave Leip Election Data (Harvard Login)
Presidential county-level election results for 1948-2016.
U.S. Presidential Primary Election Results results for 2000-2016.
U.S. President general county level voter registration and turnout data for 1992-2018.
U.S. House of Representatives results for 1992-2018.
U.S. Senate results for 1990-2018.
Governor General County Election Data results for 1990-2018

Federal Election Statistics & Data - Free Resources

Partisan Segregation Project
Maps showing the segregation between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. for metropolitan areas and Congressional Districts. State voterfiles were used to map the location of every individual voter in order to calculate the segregation. Read the working paper for this project to learn more.
270toWin
Maps of electoral college votes back to 1789. Also includes voting history and trends by state.
American Presidency Project: Presidential Elections Data
Presidential election data from 1789-present.
Election Statistics
Official state-by-state vote counts in federal elections from 1920 through 2016 from the U.S. House of Representatives.
Electoral College Historical Election Votes
View the electoral votes, popular votes, electors, and certificates of past presidential elections.
Harvard Election Data Archive
Core data for the archive are state, county and district level election returns for all recent state and federal elections in the United States.
A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns, 1787-1825
Data from America's earliest elections, between 1787 and 1825. The electoral data from the site covers offices from the United States president down to local offices such as alderman and county coroner.
Voting America: United States Politics, 1840-2008
Animated maps of presidential election data at the county level across time (actual returns, margin of victory, party strength, population, voter turnout).

Federal Election Statistics & Data - Reference Books

Statistical History of the American Electorate (Print Only)
Available in the HKS Library Reference Collection at REF JK1967.R87.
America at the Polls, 1960-2004 (Print Only)
Chronicles crucial presidential votes, arranged by state and by county within a state. Available in the HKS Library Research Collection at REF JK1968 .M33.
Almanac of State Legislative Elections (Print Only)
Combines detailed, state-by-state, district-by-district election results for the nation’s 6,744 state legislative districts and socioeconomic data for each district. Available in print at Harvard Kennedy School, Lamont and Widener Reference.
United States Congressional elections, 1788-1994 : the official results of the elections of the 1st through 105th Congresses (Print Only)
Available in the HKS Library Reference Collection at REF JK1967 .D77 1998.

Election Turnout

U.S. Election Assistance Commission
The EAC studies election administration issues. EAC datasets for selected reports are available for download.
U.S. Elections Project
Provide timely and accurate election statistics, electoral laws, research reports, and other useful information regarding the United States electoral system with a focus on voting turnout.
Voting and Registration
Information on reported voting and registration by various demographic and socioeconomic characteristics is collected for the nation in November of Congressional and Presidential election years in the United States Census Bureau Current Population Survey.

Polls & Surveys

Pew Research Center - Elections & Campaigns
Polls and studies back to 2002.
Gallup - Politics
Polls and studies related to U.S. politics.

Roper Center for Public Opinion (Harvard Login)
Includes the iPOLL Databank, a comprehensive, up-to-date resource for US public opinion poll data. Also, includes information about presidential and congressional election data including approval ratings.

The Roper Center for Public Opinion provides access to summary-level (aggregate) and micro-level (raw) public opinion data. While the data collection focuses strongly on United States public opinion, it also includes growing collections of (micro-level) European, Latin American (Latin American Databank) and Japanese (JPOLL) polls. The data archive (micro-level data) is searchable by keyword, date, and survey organization. The iPOLL database (summary-level data) is searchable by keyword, subject /or survey organization and survey sponsor; it provides question and response level data. The Roper Center resources require users to set up individual accounts in order to gain access to the data.

2016 Fox News Exit Polls
Find polls broken up by state and various demographics.
2016 CNN Exit Polls
Polls can be broken down by state and various demographics.
American National Election Studies
ANES provides data on voting, public opinion, and political participation. Free registration is required to view and download data.
Electoral Integrity Project
A collaboration between Harvard & Sidney University researchers, this survey gathers data from 1,429 domestic and international election experts on the integrity of elections. The Year in Election 2014 data set includes 127 national parliamentary and presidential contests held from 1 July 2012 to 31 December 2014 in 107 nations.
National Annenberg Election Survey
The NAES examines political attitudes about candidates, issues and the traits Americans want in a president. It also looks at the effects of media exposure through campaign commercials and news from radio, television and newspapers and it measures the effects of other kinds of political communication, from conversations at home and on the job to various efforts by campaigns to influence potential voters. Surveys have been completed for the 2000, 2004, and 2008 elections. Researchers can request access to this data at https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/data-access/.
PollingReport
Aggregates polling data from dozens of prominent pollsters.
Real Clear Politics
Aggregates coverage of US National and State politics.

State & Local Data

Individual Board of Elections or Department of State websites can be excellent sources for the election results. These results can include general and primary elections for state and federal offices as well as municipal election data. County and city websites and public libraries should also be checked for results of local elections.

For Massachusetts:

Massachusetts Election Statistics Online: a searchable database of Massachusetts historical election information contained in Public Document 43.
Massachusetts Elections Division