Research Guides: Elections Research: Getting started with Candidates and Issues

Getting Started with Candidates and Issues

When getting to know a candidate or issue we are left wondering where to go for information or how to even begin asking the right questions. This guide will help you with this process and offer ideas for how to begin researching candidates and issues.

General Election Information

Listed below are resources about elections and links to organizations that study campaigns and elections.

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research This link opens in a new window
ICPSR maintains and provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction.

Library Databases with Election Information

CQ Voting and Elections Collection

Voting and Elections Collection integrates a wealth of data, authoritative analyses, concise explanations, and historical material to provide a research and reference tool on the American voter, major and minor political parties, campaigns and elections, and historical and modern races for Congress, the presidency, and governorships.

Proquest Congressional

This database indexes and abstracts a broad spectrum of Congressional publications, including hearings (testimony), committee prints, reports, documents, and full text of bills and public laws, and the U.S. Statutes at Large from 1789 to the present.

Social Explorer

Visually display demographic data in the U.S. from 1790-present at a variety of geographic levels. Create reports, maps and animations that can be downloaded.