IFES

Access Options

Three Ways to Access ElectionGuide Data 

ElectionGuide is provided as a public good. We aim to provide accurate, reliable information in multiple formats to meet your needs.  

All of the datapoints are defined and coding strategies further explained in our codebook, including how each variable can be viewed (web, API, or both). The codebook can be accessed here: ElectionGuide Codebook.

Web View

Information about upcoming and past elections is openly available on this website organized by election and by country.  

  • Election profiles are linked from election type names or dates. As each election date approaches, the ElectionGuide research team compiles an election profile. Election profiles are posted approximately two weeks before an election is held. Please note: some past elections are missing complete profiles; it is a priority of our ongoing data collection expansion efforts to retroactively complete all historical election profiles.  
  • Country profiles can be accessed by clicking on the name or flag of the country across the website. Country profiles maintain a record of past electoral events for that country and include additional information on government institutions and the country’s electoral system. Country profiles and election profiles are updated simultaneously. 
User Portal 

Registered users can access the complete dataset for each election by logging in to the site. From either the list of upcoming or recent elections or from a specific election page, users can navigate to the full dataset view by clicking on the green “portal” button. If the full dataset has not yet been published, there will be no button for that particular election. Users can also download datasets as XLSX files, including individual election datasets and basic datapoints for all elections held since 2018. For more information please see the codebook. 

API Access  

ElectionGuide datasets are also available through our API, in JSON format. Please note that the API provides a subset of the complete dataset shown for individual elections within the User Portal. For a full list of variables by access option, please see the Extended Election Dataset Variable List in the codebook. 

To register for an account or to request an API token, please fill out the Data Access Request Form. A member of the ElectionGuide team will be in touch with login information.

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