Political Science

Easy to use tools that provide simple direction to Register to Vote Now; Find Out Where to Vote; Learn Who Is On Your Ballot; Figure Out Voting as a Student.

For every candidate and elected official find Voting Records; Biographical & Contact information; Issues Positions; Interest Group Ratings; Public Statements; Campaign Finances.

Tracking your vote-by-mail ballot—when it is mailed, received, and counted—has never been easier.

To register online you will need:
Your California driver license or California identification card number; the last four digits of your social security number; and your date of birth.

This California Secretary of State site includes information on Ballot Measures, Candidates, and Voter Registration, Participation and Information.

Provides analyses of Ballot Propositions beginning with the March, 1996 California Primary Election.

Voter’s Edge California (VEC) is a joint project of MapLight and the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund (LWVCEF).* Voter’s Edge California is a comprehensive, nonpartisan online guide to elections covering federal, state, and local races in the state of California.

The California Voter Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization promoting and applying the responsible use of technology to improve the democratic process. This site includes a Voting FAQ and a Map Series featuring maps of the state's political districts, regions and counties.

"In 1975, Congress created the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to administer and enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) - the statute that governs the financing of federal elections. The duties of the FEC, which is an independent regulatory agency, are to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of Presidential elections."

Center for Responsive Politics website for tracking the influence of money on U.S. politics, and how that money affects policy and citizens' lives.

Think tanks for campaign finance policy with studies "[w]ritten to meet peer-reviewed standards, CFI’s original work is published in academic journals as well as in forms regularly used by the media and policy makers. CFI’s tools are made available freely to stimulate new research by others, while its bibliographies bring the results of recent scholarship to the attention of the policy community."

provides financial information supplied by state candidates, donors, lobbyists, and others.

"[I]ncludes every itemized contribution made since January 1, 2007 to support a political candidate, ballot issue or independent committee that raised or spent more than $10,000 in the city of San Diego. Committees do not have to reveal contributors that gave them less than $100 in an election cycle."

"Campaign finance disclosure reports for all filers who have "local" filing requirements. This includes filings for county offices, county measures, special districts, and school districts, located or campaigning within the County of San Diego.
Historical campaign disclosure reports going back four years."

This dataset provides official election results for presidential, congressional, and gubernatorial popular elections in the United States. Data are collected from various official sources. Data from this internet site are included in Data-Planet database.

"Since 1920, the Clerk of the House has collected and published the official vote counts for federal elections from the official sources among the various states and territories."

" ICPSR's holdings of historical election data cover the years 1788-1990 and consist of several discrete datasets that contain county- and state-level returns for all elections to the offices of president, governor, United States senator, and United States representative. ICPSR distributes three major general election data collections: United States Historical Election Returns, 1824-1968 (ICPSR 0001), General Election Data for the United States, 1950-1990 (ICPSR 0013), and United States Historical Election Returns, 1788-1823 (ICPSR 0079). "
Download codebook and data in preferred file format. This resource can only be accessed on campus and requires the creation of a personal account from an on campus computer. Database can then be accessed anywhere for six months before reauthentication is required.

Includes data on voter registration by county for each state. Includes other information on voter registration.

"The Elections Performance Index, or EPI, is the first comprehensive assessment of election administration in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Using data from 17 key indicators, the EPI makes it possible to compare election administration policy and performance across the states and from one election cycle to the next. The index presented here is based on the 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014 elections."

The National Conference of State Legislatures, has created several databases covering elections administration:
*administration of elections (2001-present)
*ballot measures (1892-2014)
*initiatives and referendum process legislation (1993-present)
*campaign finance legislation (1999-present)
*term limits legislation

"This is the first-ever report to analyze the completeness, strengths, weaknesses, and usefulness of data from sources such as state election divisions, the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and its Election Administration and Voting Survey, public opinion surveys, and expert assessments."

Explanation of how the electoral college works and state-by-state electoral college votes (1789-2012).

Voteview allows users to view every congressional roll call vote in American history on a map of the United States and on a liberal-conservative ideological map including information about the ideological positions of voting Senators and Representatives (Voteview About page)