2012 Election Results - Data Collection

[CalgaryManifesto]

For the 2008 election, I came across a thread where people were combining election results at the county/precinct level for all the states. I think it was originally run by Dave?

Would anyone be interested in doing something similar for 2012? I'm guessing they'll be more data available this time around than in 08, so it should be an easier task. I'll be collecting data for my thesis regardless, so I figured I'd share what I end up putting together.

[Harry Hayfield]

Dave's dominace in this field is being challenged by the Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom. They have at http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/nov/07/us-2012-election-county-results-download#data a link to download a spreadsheet with county data for the election.

[NOVA Green]

County election results are already being discussed in various other threads at a macro level... I would imagine once county election officials start releasing official precinct returns (which personally  find to be a bit more interesting and informative) that we will see some of our experts on these subject post some numbers and maps.

[CalgaryManifesto]

My hope is to start mapping them out at the precinct level - as soon as they start releasing them. The last time i checked, The Guardian's data set isn't quite complete, but I'll have it mapped/released as soon as I can.

Do you know about how long it takes the counties to complete the precinct level results by chance?

[trebor204]

Some of the counties have already released preliminary data for precincts.

However, the problem is finding the current shapefile for voting districts.
Shapefiles (TIGER 2012) can be found at the US Census site at:

http://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/TIGER2012/VTD/

For example, Chicago updated all their precinct boundaries, so the current shapefile is invalid.

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

I've got precinct data for Shelby and Davidson counties in TN - and current precinct boundaries for Shelby (will have Davidson later in the week).