Worldwide Elections Guide: Election Research Organizations

• Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies (CCPS): provides an integrated teaching, research, and study program focusing on Congress and the presidency and the interactions of these two basic American institutions. Its projects include federal election project, improving campaign conduct etc.

• Center for Governmental Studies: a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) public charity, which studies and helps implement innovative approaches to improving social problems and the processes of self-government. Its research projects include 2003 electronic filing and disclosure survey, judicial elections, campaign finance etc.

• Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES): is a collaborative program of cross-national research among election studies conducted in over fifty states.

• ElectionLine: non-partisan, non-advocacy organization providing up-to-the-minute news and analysis on election reform. See their resource library for more information on the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). Their interactive map lets one see numbers of registered voters, voting age population, voting system used etc.

• Florida Ballot Project: an effort to catalog the contents of 175,010 Florida ballots that did not register a vote for president of the United States in November 2000. The resulting data products are now being made available for public download from this website at no charge.

• International Committee for Research into Elections and Representative Democracy (ICORE): established at an ECPR research session on electoral democracy in 1989. Its membership consists of the directors of established surveys of national electorates in Europe. 

• International Foundation for Election Systems: a non-profit NGO, provides professional advice and technical assistance in promoting democracy and serves as an information clearinghouse on elections, rule of law, governance, and civil society.

• National Election Studies: conducts national surveys of the American electorate in presidential and midterm election years and carries out research on various issues on elections.

• Political Studies Association: found in 1950, it develops and promotes the study of politics. The Association is affiliated to the International Political Science Association and represents its members on the Council of that body.

• Unit for Promotion of Democracy: is the principal body within the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS). The objectives of the organization include promoting exchanges of information among the region’s institutions and experts in the field of democracy, and responding to governments’ requests for electoral technical assistance and observation of elections and etc.

Prepared by James R. Jacobs and Shinjoung Yeo, September 23, 2004