Voter Characteristics and Opinion - Elections and Voting Data - Research Guide

Voter Demographics

Explore Census Data
The US Census Bureau's primary delivery platform - a free data site - for the American Community Survey, the most recent Decennial Census, and other Census Bureau data releases. Includes US Congressional redistricting data from the most recent Decennial Censuses, covering voting districts (i.e., election precincts) nationwide.
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Downloadable as CSV or Excel format.
IPUMS CPS
Provides complete-file and subsetting microdata extracts for the Current Population Survey's biennial Voter Supplement (November), 1976-present, with harmonizing variables for multiple-year analysis. Supersedes CPS on the Web and CD-ROM datasets produced by Unicon.
Record of American Democracy, 1984-1990
Election returns, socioeconomic summaries, and demographic details for all elections at and above the State House nationwide.
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Available in SPSS portable or ASCII file formats. Select "Dataverse" above to download. Contains two sets of data files, available by state:
MCD group level data: Voting, registration and census data aggregated to Minor Civil Division groups, designations made by the US Census. Typically, they have the same population as a small city.
Precinct level data: Voting data and registration data (where available) aggregated to voting precinct level.
Voting and Registration - U.S. Census Bureau
Reported voting and registration, method of voting, and reasons for not voting, by various demographic and socioeconomic characteristics at national level for election years, 1964-present, from the Current Population Survey (CPS) November Supplement. Does not provide estimates of partisianship, such as what candidate a voter supported or what political party a voter aligned themselves with.

Opinion Polls and Surveys

American National Election Studies
Demographic and opinion time series data from surveys with national samples conducted during U.S. presidential and congressional election years, 1948-present. These studies allow researchers to explore the relationship between demographics, socioeconomics, party affiliation, and electoral participation, among other variables. Available for download to SPSS or Stata, or for online analysis using SDA.

National Annenberg Election Survey
National sample of public opinion regarding beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behavior relevant to presidential campaigns, with particular emphasis on "the effects of media exposure through campaign commercials and news," 2000-2008.
Roper Center for Public Opinion Research - Elections and Presidents
Select Data Access > US Elections for general and primary election exit polls, polls on voter attitudes, and vote percentages by demographic, socioeconomic and political groups, for election years 1976-2008.

General Social Survey
Public opinion and lifestyle survey, widely regarded as the single best source of data on societal trends, conducted almost annually since 1972. Covers demographics and personal background as well political and social attitudes and voting behavior. Can be viewed in convenient Quick Tables, analyzed online using SDA interface, or downloaded in its entirely from the Roper Center.
iPOLL
Question-level archive of public opinion polls from the Gallup Organization, the Roper Organization, Louis Harris and Associates, the National Opinion Research Center, and various news sources, 1935-the present.

Cooperative Congressional Election Study
30,000+ person national stratified sample survey on general political attitudes, various demographic factors, assessment of roll call voting choices, and political information, 2006-2010.