PA Election Transparency Project
Purpose
The purpose of the Pennsylvania Election Transparency Project is to collect, analyze and disseminate publicly available election-related data in Pennsylvania. The Project is no longer accepting contributions.History
In 2008 we used the Right-to-Know Law to request electronic files of election results from the City of Philadelphia. The City has never released electronic databases of election results to the public before. Some easy-to-use lookup forms are available here. The files are available for mass download, for free, here. To use these files, you will probably need a database program such as MySQL (free) or MS Access.
In fall 2007 we began a voter file oversight project. The purpose is to check for discrepancies between county records and the SURE system and to monitor the voter files for purges of voters. We have completed the first stage of data collection and programming, and have discovered that a large percentage of voters were dropped from the rolls in Luzerne County, PA, just after the 2006 general election. The next stage is to refine the analysis and make some maps.
In 2007 we started a public outcry that convinced Governor Ed Rendell to reverse a misguided state policy restricting access to database of polling place locations statewide.
In the summer of 2006, responding to a lawsuit we filed under the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania dropped the price of the statewide voter file from $1340 to $20. (To order voter files, follow these instructions or contact us.) Voter files cannot be posted on the Web.
We have collected precinct-level data for several recent elections. We have convinced several counties in Pennsylvania to lower their voter file prices to the maximum legally allowable price.
The PA Election Transparency Project began in 2005 with private funding.