Benjamin Hosler
Pronouns:
Research Mentor(s): Allen Hicken
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Political Science / LSA
Program:
Authors:
Session: Session 4: 1:40 pm – 2:30 pm
Poster: 7
Abstract
There is an ever-growing need for election data from around the world in an ever-growing globalized research society. Researchers without collected election data lack the ability to create or understand elections in a nation or comparative research due to the lack of data accessibility. CLEA, or the Consistency Level Election Archives, collects election data on the lower house legislature chambers for democracies since 1789. The project focuses on the collection of free and fair elections. Often, the data for these elections are hard to obtain or not in a friendly format for the private and public. The data can also be non-English, making it more difficult for non-native speakers of the origin election. CLEA solves this problem by collecting the data and putting it in English and in a format more digestible for the public to use at no charge. The data is published on the CLEA website in one easy-to-access location. The research allows researchers around the globe to improve and expand research on political parties, elections, and political institutions. The private sector, such as policy analysts, diplomats, and intelligence analysts, may use the data to direct or study the causes and consequences of party system characteristics and to analyze election results. During my time with CLEA, I coded the following elections: Kosovo 2001 and 2004, Pakistan 1970, United States 2022, Seychelles 2020, and Italy 1897.
