Spanish electoral archive. SEA database

Area of Science:

• Political Science
• Data Science
• Computational Social Science

Background:

• Comprehensive data on Spanish electoral processes is crucial for academic research and policy analysis.
• Existing repositories often lack completeness or standardized formats, hindering comparative studies.
• The restoration of democracy in Spain (late 1970s) marked the beginning of extensive electoral data collection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and describe the Spanish Electoral Archive (SEA) database.
• To provide a centralized, homogeneous, and accessible repository of Spanish election outcomes.
• To detail the structure, variables, and data processing methods within the SEA.

Main Methods:

• Compilation of historical election results from General, Regional, Local, and European Parliamentary elections in Spain.
• Data homogenization and standardization across different electoral levels and time periods.
• Development of a user-friendly format for data access and download, including ballot-box level data.

Main Results:

• The SEA database is the most complete public repository of Spanish election results available to date.
• Data spans General (1979-2019), Regional (1989-2021), Local (1979-2019), and European Parliamentary (1987-2019) elections.
• The database is freely accessible in a homogeneous format, with options for downloading data from various electoral levels.

Conclusions:

• The SEA database serves as a vital resource for researchers studying electoral behavior, turnout, and political trends in Spain.
• Its comprehensive and accessible nature facilitates advanced analyses, including election prediction and ecological inference.
• Future work will focus on expanding the database and exploring novel applications for the electoral data.