Our research at the MGGG Redistricting Lab requires election data at the finest spatial resolutions possible. This generally is the voting precinct, also sometimes called voting tabulation districts (VTDs), wards, and election districts. Unfortunately for our research purposes, many states either do not keep track of their precinct boundaries at all or have significant discrepancies between their precinct boundary data and tabular election results. While we can contact individual municipalities to collect data or clear up these discrepancies, this is incredibly time consuming and sometimes local election administrators are unable or unwilling to help. In these instances, a geocoded voterfile can be used to help determine precinct boundaries. Voterfiles are lists kept by state elections officials of registered voters. The information in them varies state by state, but generally they include address information and precinct assignments for all registered voters.
