RBH's Maps (Now, Atlas Election Entry Script & County Map Generation)

[ElectionAtlas]

Another Thought - hold off for a short time on Initiative/state-wide questions.  I have some additional thoughts on how to present/store this info.

[ElectionAtlas]

Another Thought - hold off for a short time on Initiative/state-wide questions.  I have some additional thoughts on how to present/store this info.

I've updated the script to modify how we handle initiatives, etc.  I've added a text field to place the name of the initiative (e.g. Amendment #1, Proposition 41, etc.)  I've changed the script to automatically place "Yes" and "No" in the right "Candidate" fields when an initiative or referendum is selected.  I've added a new table to keep track of the initiative names.  Here are two examples that I uploaded:

SC 2004 Amendment #2
SC 2004 Amendment #1

Note that the changes remove the name of the initiative from the "candidate" field.  I included the text of the initiative in the "Note 1" field and the explanation of the initiative in the "Note 2" field.

Let me know what you think.
Dave

[ElectionAtlas]

Thanks Alcon.  I've removed the blue bars from the initiative data graph pages and resorted the county data in the data pages according to fips (this is an interesting problem: fips codes are not entirely in alphabetical order, so I don't sort the data in the tables I have created.  When the php grabs the mysql data without sort, they do so in order they appear in the table.  In our new table, what happens is when rows are deleted, new data is entered in an irregular fashion - I don't know any details as to why or what the algorithm looks like - but it causes the odd ordering when the php grabs the data).

[ElectionAtlas]

Dave, good work!

Is there a page of composite maps contributions? If so, can it be linked from the forum?

I was thinking of making some maps comparing Presidential/Senatorial/Gubernatorial results by county. The source, of course, would be the Atlas. How would I tackle this?

Thanks!  Its a great team effort!  Already 111 new contests with county maps on the site! in only three days!

The list of contributions is located here.  I'll be adding this link from other parts of the site as it matures.

You can see a great composite of maps for contests by state - for example: Washington 1980

Enjoy,
Dave

[ElectionAtlas]

Great Job everyone!  I'm very impressed with enthusiasm!  I appreciate the quality of the effort.

Alcon, I've corrected the items mentioned below.  I've added 4 more initiative/referendum "offices".  I'm going to hold off on commissioners for the moment.   I've also corrected the sort bug in the data table.  The linked scripts from all these pages (except for population) all account for the new tables and should work properly.  Including population, voter registration, ballots cast, etc. requires a significantly larger infrastructure change that I do plan to tackle at some point.

Enjoy!
Dave

[ElectionAtlas]

I added the date to the source of the 1994 Primary election -
"1994 Democratic Primary Election 3/8/1994"
and changed the source of the runoff from
"1994 Democratic Primary Election" to
"1994 Democratic Primary Runoff Election 4/12/1994" (absence of the word "Runoff" looks like a carry-over error from the previous election upload).  I've also added a note to the 1994 Primary Election:
"With no candidate having received a majority of the vote, a <a href="https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?f=0&fips=48&elect=6&off=3&year=1994">runoff</a> election between Mattox and Fisher was held in April".

[ElectionAtlas]

There is another issue - I'll need to add separate election types for "Republican Runoff" and "Democratic Runoff" from "Open Runoff", otherwise there will be a conflict, say between Dem Runoff and Rep Runoff on the same election.  So, please hold off on more runoff elections until I create new election types for them.
Thanks,
Dave

[ElectionAtlas]

Ok, that's done.  Go ahead and use the new "Republican Runoff" and "Democratic Runoff" contests.  I love easy changes that expand content.

[ElectionAtlas]

RBH - could you please include the date of the election (especially primary, runoff, special) in the source - i.e. for texas, the date is just below the election title: such as "2006 Democratic Party Primary Runoff Election 4/11/2006".  This gives more info on when the election took place.

Also, to all, be careful when you use the back key to enter multiple elections back-to-back to check each of the fields as not to enter incorrect data from the previous entry.
Thanks,
Dave

[ElectionAtlas]

New Feature: Comparison of Election Results by office for a given year:  here is Washington 2004.  These pages are linked in from each state page.
Enjoy!
Dave

[ElectionAtlas]

In spite of my New York roots, I do not have these elections at this time.

Alcon - are you ill?  If so, hoping for a speedy recovery.  I was actually distracted today by the amazing 72 degree outdoor temperature!  Unbelievable January day here in Boston.

How about working on Oregon?  1996 - present are on-line and I have complete pdf copies of the 1990 and 1994 Official Abstract of Votes from OR.  Did you complete the precinct returns for WA Senate in 2006?

In further news, the 1992 Gubernatorial election results have been uploaded.

Enjoy,
Dave

[ElectionAtlas]

Alcon - Months is not fun with illness - hope for a quick(er) recovery going forward!  Cool about OR, let me know when you are ready for the pdf files of OR Abstracts.

In further news, the 1992 Gubernatorial election results have been uploaded.

Looks good.

But I noticed that the mouse-over text for (I believe) MO, NC, VT, and WV all display every candidate as "0".

Thanks - I knew about this one, but decided not to upload the corrected names until I could complete the incumbency info for 1998 and 2002 (which is now done and maps are made!).

Also (and this is a very minor complaint), the map keys for some states aren't quite accurate. For example, the Utah key doesn't have shadings for the independent candidate and the Louisiana keys display every red/blue shading from >50% to >90%.

Other than those quibbles, great work.

Thanks very much for pointing these out!  I greatly appreciate when items that seem out-of-the-ordinary are brought to my attention.  They have been corrected  (there is so much data and so many files that are cross-linked/or dependent on one-another that mistakes happen from time to time - and I relish accuracy, so keep-em coming.)

[ElectionAtlas]

I have no idea how I managed this. but it should be deleted.

Done - I actually forgot to remind you that the 1990 and 1994 Gubernatorial and Senatorial races in Oregon are already done, just not uploaded - So I removed those contests.
Thanks again for all the great work!

State election results index pages (such as WA have been updated to include other election types (primary, runoff, etc.) and cleaned up so that the initiative and referendum results are below the office results.

[ElectionAtlas]

Hi Jesus!
Very cool.  A couple of points:
1. please enter only official data (I prefer not to add data for another compilation for two reasons -
a. often candidates are omitted or aggregated and b. official sources have more credibility.)

2. I haven't really started looking at county boundaries for such old elections and I recommend holding off for the time being - there is quite a bit of work to understand the boundary changes, create modified maps, update the shapes database, etc.  Currently, county boundary changes are supported as follows:
Most Ohio Valley States and Northeastern states' county boundaries are unchanged for some time, check the animated county gif for an approximate idea for how far back you can go before boundaries change in a given state.

Montana: all since statehood on Presidential years (boundary changes in between may not be supported)
Wyoming: all since 1904 on Presidential years
Kansas: all since 1888
Arizona: all since statehood
California: all since 1892 on Presidential years
Michigan: all since 1884 on Presidential years
Colorado: Changes to Denver in 1988 and Broomfield in 2002
Maine: Changes to Cumberland/Oxford County in 1978
New Mexico: Change in 1984
South Dakota: back to 1920
Virginia: back to 1921
Wisconsin: Change in 1964

[ElectionAtlas]

New Mexico: Change in 1984

What about Los Alamos in the 40s? The last changes before that were in the first quarter of the century.

Vielen Dank!  New Mexico boundary changes weren't accounted for in either the shapes database or the mapgen script.  I've added both sets of information, so New Mexico is now complete back to statehood - with a caveat:
Boundary between Socorro/Sierra and Chaves/Roosevelt is different from a couple of different sources in the 1920s.  Anyone with traceable information on the evolution of these two boundaries?
Thanks
Dave

[ElectionAtlas]

I looked at the book today. It does seem to include minor candidates that received less than 1% of the vote and give its sources which are often official... If you don't want me to use it though, I won't.

Alcon stayed up until 1PM (in the afternoon!) that one night and did all of Washington so I'm just looking for something else to do... :-

Wow.  I'll have to give the data a double-check... I know what sleep-deprivation can do... but that is some passion!

How about working the WA border states?  Idaho is very easy as the SOS already has data back to the early 90s in spreadsheets.  Montana also has official abstracts posted (I downloaded the spreadhseets a while ago - but they don't seem to be available anymore, so I posted them here.  I also obtained 1984, 1988, and 1992 OR Abstracts in pdf form also here.  These abstracts are scans and therfore require typing.

[ElectionAtlas]

That was odd - I've changed permissions to allow all read.  I also posted three pdf versions of the Colorado Official Abstracts that I dug up (1997-99, 2001-02, and 2003-04).
Thanks,
Dave

[ElectionAtlas]

Thanks Dave.

Tied results are still showing up as empty, by the way.    I'm not sure if that's been reported yet...

Montana is going great - the spreadsheet format really helps.

Cool - but - there is a problem...  I should have warned ahead of time (Note that checkbox that asks to verify that the county order is the same in the source as the template spreadsheet).  McCone and Madison counties are reversed in all your entries (excel sorts Mc after Ma, but traditionally, Mc has always been listed before Ma and the fips code supports the latter order).  This is a headache that I am constantly having to deal with - in printed sources, I have to check the order of every printed county name before entering the data... so, I think you'll need to redo...  let me work to create an easier way to change just the data for a race and I'll post another message on this thread when its ready.

I'll also add a red/green tie color.

[ElectionAtlas]

I've now added data update functionality to the upload script: at the bottom of any data page that you contributed, there is a new link "Change Data for this Contest".   This will allow you to upload the new data for that contest without touching any of the other information (candidates, sources, etc.).

Dave

[ElectionAtlas]

I also added official publications for AZ (pdf canvasses), Idaho (excel canvasses), and Delaware (pdf scan official results) to the DOC folder.

[ElectionAtlas]

I've changed the permissions to allow for write-access.  Note that with Delaware, later years separate out the City of Wilmington from 'Rural New Castle County'.  You'll need to add the two for the New Castle figure.

Also for the DE documents, use the "Document" source choice with the following information:
example: for 1996:
Author: Thomas J. Cook
Author Title: Commissioner of Elections
Author Compiled: prep.
Agency: Delaware Department of Elections
Title: State of Delaware 1996 Election Results
Article: State of Delaware Official Results of General Election for Statewide Offices November 5, 1996
Source Pages: p. 2

Also note the write-ins starting on p. 36.
So Lt. Governor should also have a total figure for write-ins of 22 votes, even though there are no county-level data.

[ElectionAtlas]

Done.  Note that with Delaware, later years separate out the City of Wilmington from New Castle County.  You'll need to add the two for the New Castle figure.

Yeah, that's a little annoying.  In earlier years, they also don't provide the losing candidate's full names - just the last names.  There doesn't appear to be any place online with this information.  Is it OK to just enter their last names for now, and update them when they're found?

Hi Alcon,
Sure, that is ok.  Post the names and offices in a thread and maybe you can enlist some help digging them up.  I'll also add a script to more easily edit candidate names/source info.
Also read the edits to my previous post as well.
Enjoy,
Dave

[ElectionAtlas]

Also, for the many Maryland members, there is always the Maryland Manual.  From the present back into the 19th century, they have compilation of scanned pdfs of the original manuals.  It takes a bit of getting used to finding the right pages with the election results - I tend to start in the index and find "E", look for election results and then go to that page.  Be sure to use the pdf versions and not the attempted OCR html data as there are often incorrect data in the html.  If you find the right pages, please also download them and send them to me, letting me know which edition of the manual they are from.  Finally, use the "Document" source choice with the appropriate information.
Thanks,
Dave

[ElectionAtlas]

For the Illinois Buff, there are the Illinois Blue Books back to 1900.  These also include election data as part of the document.  Also use "Document" for the source from any data here, including all the pertinant info: For example:
Goveror Illinois 1912

Source Author: Harry Woods
Source Author Title: Secretary of State
Source Author Compiled: comp.
Source Agency: Illinois Secretary of State
Source Title: Blue Book of the State of Illinois 1913-1914
Source Article: Vote for Governor - November 5, 1912
Source Publisher: Illinois Printing Company
Source City: Danville
Source Year: 1914
Source Pages: pp. 569-570

[ElectionAtlas]

Thanks - All should be well soon.  I made some modifications to the database table and a script is working to update the table.  Should be done soon.
Dave