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nvkelso / election-geodata

Precinct shapes (and vote results) for US elections past, present, and future
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Add 2016 election precinct shapes for New York #15

Open nvkelso opened 7 years ago

nvkelso commented 7 years ago

Priority based on population

nvkelso commented 7 years ago

When researching & requesting data also ask for matching election results (presidential, congressional, state house, and state senate) in addition to the precinct shape data for 2016, and for earlier election years if available.

nvkelso commented 7 years ago

Some precinct level results at Open Elections:

nvkelso commented 7 years ago

NYC only: http://www1.nyc.gov/site/planning/data-maps/open-data/districts-download-metadata.page

veltman commented 7 years ago

Erie, Cortland, Ontario, and Rensselaer Counties: https://gis.ny.gov/gisdata/inventories/index.cfm?AlphaIndex=E

I believe Suffolk County would be extractable from here: http://gis3.suffolkcountyny.gov/VoterInformation/

nvkelso commented 7 years ago

@veltman Thanks for the links, will have a look :)

nvkelso commented 7 years ago
nvkelso commented 7 years ago

After #96 lands:

render

saranrapjs commented 7 years ago

A few random updates here, from a fan of the project trying to get a hold of more boundaries for NY State! 😄

...I'd be inclined to take this a step further and potentially compose a freedom of information act request (never done one! sounds fun!) to try to get a hold of the data, but wanted to check here first to make sure no one else is already working on it (or has some contact they're working)?

The other option would be to try to go thru each county and try to get the data that way, but that'd definitely be the long way.

nvkelso commented 7 years ago

Thanks for the update :)

Please proceed with the FOI request, let's see what the New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment http://www.latfor.state.ny.us/ has!

On Fri, Sep 15, 2017 at 2:51 PM, Jeff Sisson notifications@github.com wrote:

A few random updates here, from a fan of the project trying to get a hold of more boundaries for NY State! 😄

We do not maintain records of shape files for election districts at the state level. You will have to contact the county boards of elections individually for that information. If you have additional questions, please let us know.

  • I also got in touch with Isaac Fefer at something called the New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionmen http://www.latfor.state.ny.us/, which sounded like something that might have this data. Unfortunately, after some back and forth, he told me that it's "proprietary data" ☚ī¸ They did, however, confirm that they have the data! Potentially for multiple years as well.

...I'd be inclined to take this a step further and potentially compose a freedom of information act request (never done one! sounds fun!) to try to get a hold of the data, but wanted to check here first to make sure no one else is already working on it (or has some contact they're working)?

The other option would be to try to go thru each county and try to get the data that way, but that'd definitely be the long way.

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dhillmer1 commented 5 years ago

Did the FOI go in? Any results yet? I am also interested in election precinct shapefiles for NY. Someone gave me a contact for GIS questions at http://www.latfor.state.ny.us/ . It's Bruce Ruiz. He is apparently a GIS manager there. Perhaps he would be more helpful.

saranrapjs commented 5 years ago

@dhillmer1 the FOIL did go in! More details in this (now-merged) PR

dhillmer1 commented 5 years ago

I am new to this conversation and I appreciate all the effor that went into the FOIL for the election precinct shapefiles. However, the files supplied in the zip archive based on 2012 definitions are for "election districts". I have a shapefile for the 2010 election precincts for St. Lawrence County, NY. It shows 101 precincts. The shapefile for the election districts for St Lawrence County shows only 81 districts. Are we really talking about the same geo entitiy?

saranrapjs commented 5 years ago

Unfortunately there was next to no context provided for any of the per-county data from the FOIL. Maybe you could post the shapefile that you have and we could compare the actual shape boundaries and/or the other metadata in the two shapefiles? My understanding is that election districts are sometimes the same things as precincts, though I'm far from the expert here.

dhillmer1 commented 5 years ago

Sure, I'll be glad to post side-by-side maps using both shapefiles. Of course, there is a "vintage" problem, since my precincts shapefile is from 2010 and the election districts shapefile from NY latfor is vintage 2012. But, it's hard for me to think that this one county went from 101 precincts to 81. Will post in the Github conversation tomorrow.

Doug

On Mon, Sep 9, 2019 at 4:02 PM Jeff Sisson notifications@github.com wrote:

Unfortunately there was next to no context provided for any of the per-county data from the FOIL. Maybe you could post the shapefile that you have and we could compare the actual shape boundaries and/or the other metadata in the two shapefiles? My understanding is that election districts are sometimes the same things as precincts, though I'm far from the expert here.

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saranrapjs commented 5 years ago

For what it's worth, I did see many counties where there actually did seem to be non-trivial jumps in ED's over four year cycles. But worth sanity checking regardless!

dhillmer1 commented 5 years ago

I decided to go the the most authoritative source I could think of, the St. Lawrence County Board of Elections. Indeed, the number of "Election Districts" (ED) has remained constant at 81 since redistricting after the 2010 Census. Thus, the 2012 shapefile we have as a result of the NY FOIL appears to be correct. BTW, I also found out that there is not a one-to-one relationship between an ED and a voting place. The person I spoke with said that they used to say "Election Precincts", but they now use only the term "Election District". So, I think I have an answer to my question, and (the good news) the shapefile for St. Lawrence County appears to be accurate.

On Mon, Sep 9, 2019 at 4:49 PM Jeff Sisson notifications@github.com wrote:

For what it's worth, I did see many counties where there actually did seem to be non-trivial jumps in ED's over four year cycles. But worth sanity checking regardless!

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saranrapjs commented 5 years ago

Wow, thanks for the due diligence/follow up!

dhillmer1 commented 5 years ago

Sure. The preliminary zip file of shape files NY sent is missing lots of counties. Do we know when to expect a final, complete file?

On Tue, Sep 10, 2019 at 11:33 AM Jeff Sisson notifications@github.com wrote:

Wow, thanks for the due diligence/follow up!

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saranrapjs commented 5 years ago

I got the impression that this was all they had; I'm not a FOIL expert, though, and it's possible that I didn't ask the question the right way. If your contact at LATFOR knows of other files that aren't currently accounted for, that's definitely worth pursuing.

dhillmer1 commented 5 years ago

I plan to contact the GIS person at LATFOR this week. But, I want to be sure I correctly state the goals of the election-geodata project correctly. It seems to me that the goal for shapefiles is to cover as much geography as possible for each of the geo types that are deemed important. And, these shapefiles would be available to the public. Is that correct? I am mostly interested in the election district of vintage 2012 or later by county for NY right now. The zip file we got earlier this year from LATFOR omits lots of counties. I am willing to help get the needed data for six of these counties (Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lewis, Saratoga). If the GIS guy at LATFOR cannot help, I will contact the board of elections for each county to see what information I can get that can be turned into inputs for shapefile creation. But, I need to be sure my questions are answered to avoid an misleading description of this project (I couldn't find such a description in Github, but it's possible I missed it).

saranrapjs commented 5 years ago

I plan to contact the GIS person at LATFOR this week. But, I want to be sure I correctly state the goals of the election-geodata project correctly. It seems to me that the goal for shapefiles is to cover as much geography as possible for each of the geo types that are deemed important. And, these shapefiles would be available to the public. Is that correct?

I think that's right? Some of the background is presented in these posts: https://github.com/nvkelso/election-geodata#see-also

But also there's this description from the readme:

The goal is to have state-wide shapefiles for multiple dates corresponding to election years (like 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016). Statewide is prefered, but county and city are also interesting.

For what it's worth, when I spoke to someone from LATFOR on the phone, they were pretty clear on the distinction between election precincts (which in my experience are a bit easier to come by) vs. election districts (which is what this project is after). I haven't tried contacting individual counties, though!

Out of curiosity, how are you planning to use the data for those counties?

dhillmer1 commented 5 years ago

I have in mind several possible analytical uses of the data, since I am shifting my consulting business from government to other organizations. That's really all I can say about this now. However, I am interested in assisting the Github Election Geodata project in the pursuit of their goal for a complete repository of shapefiles for past, present, and future elections. Based on my reading of the link you sent me (and because I was able to download the nation.shp file they have created so far), I am assuming everything created by this project will be available to the public. That is important, because I don't want the GIS guy at LATFOr to think I am just trying to get the shapefile data for partisan purposes.

I will be in upstate NY next week, and, if it would help, I could contact some of the county election boards to see what data they can give me (in whatever format they have).

Doug

On Tue, Sep 17, 2019 at 9:23 AM Jeff Sisson notifications@github.com wrote:

I plan to contact the GIS person at LATFOR this week. But, I want to be sure I correctly state the goals of the election-geodata project correctly. It seems to me that the goal for shapefiles is to cover as much geography as possible for each of the geo types that are deemed important. And, these shapefiles would be available to the public. Is that correct?

I think that's right? Some of the background is presented in these posts: https://github.com/nvkelso/election-geodata#see-also

But also there's this description from the readme:

The goal is to have state-wide shapefiles for multiple dates corresponding to election years (like 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016). Statewide is prefered, but county and city are also interesting.

For what it's worth, when I spoke to someone from LATFOR on the phone, they were pretty clear on the distinction between election precincts (which in my experience are a bit easier to come by) vs. election districts (which is what this project is after). I haven't tried contacting individual counties, though!

Out of curiosity, how are you planning to use the data for those counties?

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