Siddharth Das
Research Mentor: Kenneth Kollman
Mentor Department: Center for Political Studies, ISR
Author(s): Siddharth Das, Ken Kollman
Session: Session 2 (10:00 AM – 10:50 AM)
Presentation Type: Poster 24
Abstract
The Elections Archive (THEA) has been an ongoing research project since 2008 with the goal of creating a comprehensive repository of subnational election data. We begin by selecting a country and a year from a list that displays which data has not yet been processed by THEA. Then, we consult election results data from the respective countries, as well as supplementary, validating sources to ensure the correct information is being utilized. Once we have specified the source, we find the information that corresponds to the variables used by THEA, such as candidates’ names, party affiliations, voter turnout, and the magnitude of seats in a given constituency. With this information, we put it into a standardized format, through Excel or Google Sheets, categorized with each variable and its relevant information. This process constitutes the majority of my work as a research assistant, as my role is to prepare the files for ultimate review and finalization. When this work is complete, I also take the data through a multitude of checks, from ensuring quantitative data is correct to adding codes for each political party. Once we can ensure that this election data is error-free, it is ultimately released in batches to our website for public use. Our goal with this project is to help people who have interest in comparative worldwide elections, and we hope that our work has proved useful for researchers, students, and other people alike. We also hope that our data can be beneficial for a variety of projects, such as analyzing party performance across years or finding correlational information in voter data.
