URL: http://ssdc.ucsd.edu/ssdc/icp07757.html

TITLE: Candidate and Constituency Statistics of Elections in the United States, 1788-1990

• STUDYNO = 07757 (First ICPSR Edition, March 1995)
• INVESTIGATOR = ICPSR
• DATA SOURCE = Official election returns provided by state governments
• UNIVERSE = Candidates who ran for the offices of president, governor, and United States representative (1824-1990), United States senator (1912-1990), and one additional statewide office, usually attorney general or secretary of state (1968-1990).
• DATE-UPDATED-SSDC = June 12, 2006

STUDY DESCRIPTION: The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research has prepared historical election data for the years from 1788-1990. This collection consists of several discrete data collections:

• United States Historical Election Returns, 1788-1823 (ICPSR 0079) contains general election returns for the offices of president, governor, and United States representative in the period 1788-1823. These returns comprise an extension of the general election collection (see UNITED STATES HISTORICAL ELECTION RETURNS, 1824-1968--ICPSR 0001) back to the occurrence of the first elections held under the United States Constitution. The data are recorded chiefly at the county level, although town-level returns were collected and preserved as well for the New England states. This collection of Early National period election returns is much less complete than the body of returns available for the years from 1824 to the present. Fugitive and nonextant sources resulted in the recovery of only approximately half of the possible returns for elections in this period.
• United States Historical Election Returns, 1824-1968 (ICPSR 0001) contains state files that list county-level returns for over 90 percent of all elections to the offices of president, governor, United States senator, and United States representative from 1824 through 1968. The data files include returns for all parties and candidates (as well as write-in and scattering votes if available for individual states), and for special elections as well as regularly-scheduled contests. Over 1,000 individual party names and many additional unaffiliated candidates are included.
• General Election Data for the United States, 1950-1990 (ICPSR 0013) consists of national files containing county-level returns for elections to the offices of president, United States senator and representative, and governor. Also included are returns for one additional statewide office (usually attorney general or secretary of state) for those states that elected state offices in 1970 through 1990.
• Candidate Name and Constituency Totals, 1788-1990 (ICPSR 0002), provides the names of candidates, political party name and ICPSR party ID code, and the number of votes received by each candidate in the constituency for elections between 1788 and 1990. The data include county-level returns for over 90 percent of all elections to the offices of president, governor, United States representative (1824-1990), and United States senator (1912-1990). The dataset also includes returns for approximately two-thirds of all elections to the offices of president, governor, and United States representative for the period 1788-1823. Returns for one additional statewide office are included beginning with the 1968 elections. Also presented are 1990 data from the District of Columbia election for United States senator and United States representative. The offices of two senators and one representative were created by the "District of Columbia Statehood Constitutional Convention Initiative," which was approved by District voters in 1980. Elections for these offices were postponed until the 1990 general election. The three offices are currently local District positions, which will turn into federal offices if the District becomes a state.
• Candidate and Constituency Statistics of Elections in the United States, 1788-1990 (ICPSR 7757) are derived from CANDIDATE NAME AND CONSTITUENCY TOTALS, 1788-1990 (ICPSR 0002). They consist of returns for two-thirds of all elections from 1788 to 1823 to the offices of president, governor, and United States representative, and over 90 percent of all elections to those offices since 1824. They also include information on United States Senate elections since 1912. Returns for one additional statewide office are included beginning with the 1968 election. This file provides a set of derived measures describing the vote totals for candidates and the pattern of contest in each constituency. These measures include the total number of votes cast for all candidates in the election, each candidate's percentage of the vote received, and several measures of the relative performance of each candidate. They are appended to the individual candidate records and permit extensive analysis of electoral contests over time. This dataset contains returns for all parties and candidates (as well as scattering vote) for general elections and special elections, including information on elections for which returns were available only at the constituency level. Included in this edition are data from the District of Columbia election for United States senator and United States representative. The offices of two senators and one representative were created by the "District of Columbia Statehood Constitutional Convention Initiative," which was approved by District voters in 1980. Elections for these offices were postponed until the 1990 general election. The three offices are currently local District positions, which will turn into federal offices if the District becomes a state.

DATA COLLECTION NOTES: The SSDC staff has prepared additional documentation (Help choosing data files and variables) that includes variable lists, variable codes and notes about variable names and values for these data collections.

EXTENT OF COLLECTION: documentation + data definition statements + data file

• CODEBOOK: These data are documented by an ASCII machine-readable codebook, CANDIDATE AND CONSTITUENCY STATISTICS OF ELECTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1788-1990 (1st ICPSR Ed., Mar 1995).
• SAS AND SPSS DATA DEFINITION STATEMENTS: These text files can read the ASCII data file into statistical analysis software. Users can edit these syntax files to meet their specific requirements. Users are also advised to check the statements to make sure that they are compatible with their software installations, and if they are not, to make the appropriate changes.
• DATA FILE: This study has one data file.
• FILE FORMAT = Rectangular ASCII
• NUMBER OF RECORDS = 120146
• RECORD DELIMITER = Line Feed
• RECORD LENGTH = 114 (Includes Line Feed Character)

RESTRICTIONS: All users of these data should acknowledge ICPSR assistance.

RELATED PUBLICATIONS: Publications related to this data file.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. CANDIDATE AND CONSTITUENCY STATISTICS OF ELECTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1788-1990 [Computer file]. 5th ICPSR ed. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor], 1994.