Convert precinct-level spreadsheet files to CSV

[dwillis]

Alabama has precinct-level results for general elections since 2010 and primaries in 2012 and 2016 here. Inside each zipped folder are county-specific Excel files, but the layout is different from what we want. Instead of having each column be a different precinct, we want a file with the following headers:

county, precinct, office, district, party, candidate, votes

The ideal outcome is a Python script that downloads the zip file, extracts its contents, iterates over each county file and writes the output to a single CSV file for each election. For offices that have a district or seat component (U.S. House, state supreme court), put the district or seat in the district column. You do not have to include local (county) races, but if it's easier to include all of them, please do.

The following elections can be done:

• [x] 2016 general (filename 20161108__al__general__precinct.csv)
• [x] 2016 primary (filename 20160303__al__primary__precinct.csv)
• [x] 2014 general (filename 20141104__al__general__precinct.csv)
• [ ] 2012 general (filename 20121106__al__general__precinct.csv)
• [ ] 2012 primary (filename 20120313__al__primary__precinct.csv)
• [ ] 2010 general (filename 20101102__al__general__precinct.csv)

[ndanielsen]

I'm going to give this one a shot today =)

[devinbrady]

I'm on it.

[devinbrady]

I have a work-in-progress PR for converting the 2016 General CSV. I'd like to get some feedback on it. Could you grant me permission to add to this repo? Thanks!

[dwillis]

Hey @devinbrady: sure thing!