A call to all election jurisdictions to post elections results in a format where they can be imported into other applications and an explanation of the “Exportable Reporting Standard for Elections” (E.R.S.E.).

 I am issuing a call to all counties and states to improve the quality of their election results postings.  Even a cursory examination of elections results will reveal that about 80% of results are posted in a format that are virtually useless to academic researchers, community activists, software developers and others who have an interest in results that can be downloaded or imported into other programs.  Too often results are either posted in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, or they are in HTML or fancy Active Serve Page format (.asp).  While those nice scrolling graphics are great on election night, a few days later they become all but useless to anyone wishing to do work on that data.

Therefore, I am asking that all elections jurisdictions and states pledge to improve the quality of their posted election results by adopting the Exportable Reporting Standard for Elections, or ERSE.  What is the ERSE standard?  

  1. Results must be published in a text file format, either delimited or fixed length.
  2. You must provide field names on the first line of the file, or provide a separate document that provides and explains field names.
  3. Your text file must not contain headers, footers, and no repeating headers or footer or any extraneous text.

 What the ERSE standard is NOT:

 It does not require that each jurisdiction adopt the exact same reporting format.  That can still be up to each jurisdiction.  This is not asking you to adopt or delve into the elections standards developed by OASIS or other such organizations.   It merely requires that in addition to your PDF results or fancy HTML results, you post results in a format where people can download those results into another program.

 QUESTION: What is wrong with Adobe Acrobat or PDF files?  Those files are like image snapshots of pages.  They don’t allow you to obtain the actual data from the pages.  Therefore, if all you have are PDF files of results, someone will most likely have to print the results and then hand enter them, or do something even more error prone such as using OCR (optical character recognition).

 QUESTION: Why are reports in this format so needed?  As I mentioned, most results that you look at are in HTML format or in PDF format.  They, in some cases, can be imported into some other application, but it often requires a great deal of manipulation of the data.  Data that is provided in the ERSE format listed above can quite easily be downloaded or imported into other applications.  As a result those who want to analyze election data in greater detail can have quick access to it.  In addition, a direct import eliminates most of the sources of errors.  Those who have to hand-enter data into an application introduce the possibility that they have made keying or transposition errors, etc.  This can have serious consequences for those who work with such data.

 QUESTION: Can we provide data in other format such as EXCEL, or ACCESS?  Sure, as long as you still provide the data in a TEXT FILE FORMAT.  Often Excel is used to deal with large data sets and it isn’t designed to do that.  If the results are for a small election, then using Excel is fine.  Access is fine (.mdb) as well, but most media outlets, academic researchers and programmers would prefer it in text file format.

 QUESTION: Can you provide us with some locations that are providing data that complies with the ERSE standard?  To illustrate some Best Practices for posting results, I want to provide a list of locations that are doing a great job in providing data in this format.  Some good examples can be found:  

  1. Mecklenburg , NC Election Office.  See this site:

http://www.meckboe.org/pages/ENR2006/index.html  

  1. State of Virginia . See this page for sample:

http://www2.sbe.virginia.gov/web_docs/Election/results/2006/Nov/htm/index.htm  

Note that they provide data in Excel format and in Comma Separated Values. They also include field names on the first row of data.  

  1. State of Minnesota (I got a note from Michelle McNulty at the SOS office asking me to look at their format and it is quite good).  See:

http://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/media.asp  

  1. Illinois State Board of Elections.  This is a nice clean format.  Results are provided in Excel, Access, or comma delimited format.  Please visit:

http://www.elections.state.il.us/ElectionInformation/DownloadVoteTotals.aspx  

  1. Westmoreland County , PA.   This is an excellent site that very clearly conforms to the ERSE standard.  Please note how well they document their fields, starting and ending positions.  They provide data BOTH in fixed length and comma delimited file format.  Please visit:

http://westmorelandweb400.us/elect/elec_down.shtml

 Less than stellar examples: (and I chose these at random)  

  1. State of Tennessee (only provided in .pdf format).  See this site:

http://www.state.tn.us/sos/election/results/index.htm  

  1. Douglas County, KS (only in .pdf format).  See this site:

http://www.douglas-county.com/clerk/electioncandidates.asp  

  1. Maricopa County , AZ (either scrolling format or .pdf format only). See,

http://recorder.maricopa.gov/electionresults/default.aspx  

Some Common Election Results Report Problems:  

  1. Providing results in text format, but not explaining the format or the field layout.  In some cases, we see large strings of numbers and there is no rhyme or reason for what those are.  In other cases, you don’t know if the file is tab-delimited or in a fixed format.  Please provide all the details of your layout if you are providing a text file layout!!
  2. Using cryptic codes for things like precinct names, etc.  If you use numeric codes for precincts (101, 102, etc.), or you have text codes for them, provide a table that gives the full precinct name, and the codes.  This way someone doesn’t have to try to dig around and figure out what the precinct really is.  If your results just use the codes, provide an additional reference table.
  1. Strip off all header and footers.  Don’t have headers that have your county name, and date of the election, etc. Your first line should be field names, and the 2nd line should contain actual data.
  1. If your results are ONLY in PDF format, then state that.  Also put a link to Adobe so that visitors can obtain the latest copy of Acrobat if they don’t have it.
  1. Make sure that results are available in text format as well on election night.  Yes, the fancy graphics, bar charts, and moving displays are nice, but some of us want results in text format for our own special purposes. If you make your results available in text format only after election night, don’t delay in getting those results out in that format.  I see many long forgotten elections still available in scrolling format and no one is looking at those anymore.  They are nice for election night, but after that they because as old as yesterday’s news.  Move them to text files ASAP.
  1. A text file format is not any old document that you save as .txt.  It must have a certain format and structure.  If you put results in a text file but it contains repeating headers and footers and other comments, it isn’t useful and requires much manipulation to be useful. Many of you are simply exporting your tabulation vendor’s reports in text format and think you are done.  You need to carefully review your text reports to see if they conform to the ERSE standard.
  1. Don’t change your format from election to election. Don’t post results one time in PDF another in HTML and another in text format.  Keep a consistent format for all results. Organize elections by year and then by election name or type.

Finally, a note to vendors:  If your tabulation system is responsible for providing results to a county (either the election staff or a county data center), please make them available in a text file format that complies with the ERSE standard.  If you are vendor or office that provides the web posting of elections results, please do the same.

 NOTE: If you wish to have us review your site as to its adequacy on this requirement, send us a note.  We will be happy to have a look at your results page.  If they are currently only in PDF format, don’t bother.  But if your office has some kind of text file format, please let us know.  We also want to hear from each jurisdiction that will pledge to improve their results and adopt the ERSE reporting standard.