I need the national total vote by party in contested U.S. House races in 2002

---

Request for Question Clarification by juggler-ga on 09 Dec 2002 15:43 PST

By "contested U.S. House races," do you mean that you wish to exclude
races in which there was only single candidate from the national vote
totals by party?

Also, how do you wish to handle races in which a Democrat or
Republican had only opposition from minor party candidates? Would I be
correct in assuming that you would want to include that because it was
a "contested" race? Or would you want to exclude such a race because
it didn't involve competition between the Republicans and Democrats?

---

Request for Question Clarification by hailstorm-ga on 09 Dec 2002 16:45 PST

Do you require totals for write-in candidates and special elections
throughout 2002 as well?  If you need this level of detailed
information, this would require drilling through all fifty state
government sites to find the most accurate information for every
state.  Searching through Georgia alone, there is quite a bit to sort
through:

http://www.sos.state.ga.us/elections/results/default.htm

It may be difficult to find a researcher willing to do this for $10...

---

Clarification of Question by goldie974-ga on 10 Dec 2002 13:12 PST

What I'm looking for is the aggregate national total vote for all
Republican House candidates versus all Democratic House candidates in
congressional districts in which both major parties put up candidates.
I am not in any way interested in any third-party or independent
candidates, or in any district in which one or the other major parties
did not put up a candidate. The single datum I am seeking is the total
vote for all Republican House candidates and the total vote for all
Democratic House candidates in districts in which both parties entered
candidates. The arithmetic has probably already been done and
published somewhere, as it normally is in congressional election
years. I just can't find it, using Google.

Hi goldie974,

Somewhere out there in Cyberland, the composite numbers you asked for
may be posted. I, however, was not fortunate enough to locate them.

Luckily, though, it wasn't necessary to go to each of the 50 states to
run down the numbers you wanted because CNN was kind enough to
assemble the election results all in one place, broken down by
Congressional district:
http://usgovinfo.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2002/pages/house/index.html

That said, what was I thinking? Four hundred thirty five districts
spread across 50 states is a lot of numbers to compile! It seems,
however, that I'm a little on the compulsive side, and I like using
spreadsheets, so, out of curiosity and pure cussedness, here are the
results:

In Congressional districts contested by both a Republican and Democrat
candidate, the nationwide totals for numbers of votes garnered were -

Republicans: 30,903,093
Democrats:   28,609,221

Districts not contested by both major parties (and therefore not
reflected in the totals above): 130

Because Louisiana operates in its own unique fashion, there must be
qualifiers. These Louisiana Congressional Districts had special
conditions:

District 1 - three Republicans were on the ballot, but no Democrat. I
counted this as a "no contest", so no votes were added to the totals.

District 2 - two Democrats ran against one Republican. I counted the
top vote getter from each party in the totals above.

District 5 - four Republicans ran opposite two Democrats. This
district ended up having a runoff on 12/7/02. Its results were tracked
down from the Louisiana Secretary of State's office and  are reflected
in my totals: http://www.sec.state.la.us/cgibin/?rqstyp=ELCMR&rqsdta=120702&ID=14519066

Now that I have compiled all of this data into a spreadsheet, if you
would like to see additional statistics based on this research, it can
be expediently provided. In deference to the effort already expended,
however, any such questions probably should be posted separately :)

If you have any questions about the numbers shown above, I'll be happy
to address them if you post a Request for Clarification.

Thanks for a challenging research project,

ericynot-ga

Google search term: federal election results 2002 congress

This researcher (ericynot-ga) produced exactly the data I needed in
very short order, with ingenuity and attention to supporting detail.
I've added a tip matching the original fee.

Thanks for your generous tip goldie! Much appreciated. Look us up
again soon - and have a terrific holiday season!

ericynot