It's the most...wonderful...time...of the year.  That is, the time when the data for the 2008 elections finally comes in.  There's more...

In my last entry, I discussed matching lists when they did not share a common, persistent and unique identifier.  Basic conclusion: challenging! In this week's entry, I'll share a common technique for making the job a little easier--one which has a number of uses beyond list-matching.  Read more...

In my efforts to duplicate the straightforward plots of David Foster Wallace, I'm going to circle back yet again to one of my earlier posts.  There's more below the fold...

I'd like to follow up on Pluribus' brilliant post on downloading and using census data with an explanation of how these data can be useful to you from a polling perspective. You're starting to see some of this happen with voter file vendors, but, hey, remember, the point of this site is to help smaller groups who can't afford a Catalist subscription do all the crazy fun data things that we do. 

There's more.

Marc Ambinder has a good write-up of the final numbers on voter turnout for 2008.  Delays in counting and certification of all ballots meant that the total number could only be determined now.  What he found was very interesting.  Read more...

Just a quick note--some technical issues with what I had been planning to do with Building a Voter File left me without a piece this week.  I'll be back at my regularly scheduled time (having worked ahead).  In the meantime, please stick around; I've got a non-series post in the can.  My apologies.

As of the end of our last post, we've obtained and loaded into SQL a recent voter file from Adams County.  This week we're going to examine using the file in a very basic way.

In the last part of the Voter File tutorial, we loaded the Adams County, Ohio file into SQL.  It should now be ready to use.  But first, we need to go through some basic quality control on the file, which I'll show you how to do below the jump.

Marc Ambinder has a must-read post about the Democrats' use of voter data this cycle.  The whole thing is worth reading, so I won't excerpt here, but you should do yourself a favor and go read it--the glossary at the beginning is worth the click alone.

Consumer data is one of the most frustrating areas of voter file design, especially if you're interested in transparency or an open-source methodology.  Large parts of the voter file process use publically available data, and can be duplicated by any group with relatively low levels of equipment and technical skill (for example, witness my tutorial effort, which I absolutely promise to get back to after the election).  There's no such ability for data appends.  After the jump I'll explain why.