State Legislative Election Returns in the United States, 1968-1989

The purpose of this collection is to extend detailed study of electoral and governmental processes in the United States to the state and local levels and to encourage comparative analyses of voting patterns, political party competition, and partisan control between different states or regions. The collection provides election data at the county, constituency, and candidate levels for state legislative races contested in the United States between 1968 and 1989. General election returns for all 50 states are included, as well as primary election returns for 16 southern and border states. Data include county-level returns for all major and minor political parties that contested elections for seats in state legislatures, individual candidate totals at both the county and constituency levels, incumbency status, total number of votes cast for all candidates in an election, each candidate's percentage of the vote, and several measures comparing a candidate's performance with those of his or her rivals.