NHPR Releases Comprehensive Online Political Database of Election Results
Concord, NH (PRWEB) January 13, 2016 -- New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) has just released a new, comprehensive database of New Hampshire election results dating back to 1970. Unveiled on the cusp of the state’s First in the Nation Presidential Primary, it provides a unique data-driven analytic tool to help users understand New Hampshire politics. The database is available at nhpr.org/electiondata.
From the presidential primary, to statewide gubernatorial and congressional elections, to county-level offices and the legislature, the database includes every race, along with vote counts, at the individual town, city and ward level. The results are free and fully searchable by the public.
“The development of this database is central to our mission of creating a more informed and engaged public,” said Betsy Gardella, president & CEO of NHPR. “Making it free and easily accessible was important to us. All results are downloadable, and anyone can turn them into easy maps and graphics.”
NHPR’s news team will be tapping the database during on-air coverage on election night. NHPR will be updating the results after every election cycle, to keep it as current as possible.
“This database digitizes results in a searchable format that has been unavailable until now. It’s a great tool for journalists, political scientists, analysts, aspiring candidates, and everyday citizens who want to better understand the politics of their state and community,” said Dan Barrick, NHPR’s senior editor for politics and public policy. He noted specific ways the data reveals important political trends: how the partisan makeup of the state has changed; how national election results have shaped state level elections over the years; how individual town voting records have changed; and, the way the state’s shifting demographics have impacted electoral outcomes.
“This ambitious feat of civic engineering unlocks decades of New Hampshire’s electoral history,” observed Dante J. Scala, associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire. “It is a big win for transparency and democracy in the Granite State.”
The database technology is powered by ElectionStats, a voting statistics archive and publishing platform. ElectionStats is a product of Civera Software, a Boston-based web software company whose mission is to “build the online infrastructure of civic intelligence.” Civera also led the digitization effort, which involved accurately extracting data from over 6,500 pages and 23 editions of the Secretary of State’s political almanac, the New Hampshire Manual for the General Court.
The new database is part of NHPR’s State of Democracy initiative, a multi-platform enterprise journalism unit that focuses on the impact of politics and public policy on the lives of the people of New Hampshire and beyond. Sarah Ashworth, News Director, along with Barrick, is leading this charge, building upon NHPR’s existing radio and digital coverage to add more in-depth and investigative reporting, digital-only features, and data journalism. The State of Democracy app is currently available for Apple devices and can be downloaded through the iTunes store. For more information, visit http://nhpr.org.
About NHPR
Since 1981, NHPR has shaped the media landscape in the Granite State and beyond. Our mission is to help create a more informed public, one challenged and enriched by a deeper understanding and appreciation of state, national, and world events, ideas, and culture. NHPR is broadcast from thirteen different sites, making it by far New Hampshire’s largest (and only) statewide radio news service. Every week NHPR is the choice of more than 178,000 listeners as a primary source of in-depth and intelligent news coverage. Each day New Hampshire Public Radio delivers several hours of local news reported by NHPR’s award-winning News Department, locally produced shows such as The Exchange and Word of Mouth, and national and world news from NPR and the BBC. NHPR is the exclusive outlet for NPR News in the Granite State and broadcast national weekly programs such as Fresh Air, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! and This American Life.
JH Simoes, NHPR, http://www.nhpr.org/electiondata, +1 603-224-5566, [email protected]
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