Skip to content

fivethirtyeight/election-results

Repository files navigation

election-results

These files contain up-to-date results of elections for Governor, U.S. Senate, and President (including primaries), both nationally and by state, from the November 1998 general election to the present.

election_results files

Column Description
id 538 database id for the result
race_id 538 database id for the corresponding race (see races.csv for race details)
state_abbrev Standard state abbreviation for the race. If blank, race is national.
state Full name of the state. If blank, race is national.
office_id 538 database id for the corresponding office.
office_name Name of office; either U.S. Senate, U.S. House, Governor, or President.
office_seat_name Name of the corresponding seat. For U.S. Senate races, this will note the class of the senate seat. For U.S. House races, this will note the district number.
cycle Cycle of the corresponding race
stage Stage of the corresponding race: either general, primary, caucus, jungle primary, or runoff
special true or false depending on if the race is a special election
party Indicates the party of the race. For primaries, this should read DEM or REP; for non-primaries, this should be blank
politician_id 538 database id for the politician.
candidate_id 538 database id for the candidate. A candidate is a politician, who is running for a particular office in a particular year. For example, Donald Trump two separate candidate_ids for his 2016 and 2020 runs for president, but only one politician_id.
candidate_name Name of the corresponding candidate. If blank, the result is not for a particular candidate (e.g., Write-in votes that are not disambiguated by candidates)
ballot_party Party under which the candidate appears on the ballot for this race.
votes Number of votes for the candidate. If blank, indicates that the race is not one for which votes are available (e.g., a national presidential primary)
percent Percent of votes for the candidate. If blank, indicates that the race is not one for which votes are available (e.g., a national presidential primary)
unopposed Flag for whether the candidate ran unopposed, and results are unavailable.
winner true/false flag for whether the candidate won the corresponding election
alt_result_text If the result is not about a particular candidate, text of the result (e.g., Scattering, Blank, Write-in)
source Source from which 538 gathered this data.

races.csv

Column Description
id 538 database id for the race
type Type of race: either SenateRace, GubernatorialRace, PresidentialRace, HouseRace, GenericHouseRace, or MayoralRace
state_abbrev Standard state abbreviation for the race. If blank, race is national.
State Full name of the state. If blank, race is national.
office_id 538 database id for the corresponding office.
office_name Name of office; either U.S. Senate, U.S. House, Governor, Mayor, or President.
office_seat_name Name of the corresponding seat. For U.S. Senate races, this will note the class of the senate seat. For U.S. House races, this will note the district number.
cycle Cycle of the corresponding race
stage Stage of the corresponding race: either general, primary, caucus, jungle primary, or runoff
special true/false flag for whether the race is a special election
incumbent_party Indicates the party of the politician that held the seat at the time of the race. If the seat was vacant at the time of the race, this will be blank.
party Indicates the party of the race. For primaries, this should read DEM or REP; for non-primaries, this should be blank
date Date on which the race was held. If blank, the race either did not occur (e.g., a runoff that was not needed) or represents a national primary that occurs on several different dates in different states
created_at Timestamp for when the race was added to the 538 database
updated_at Timestamp for when the race was last updated in the 538 database