A Colorado elections committee provided the results of their recently concluded local elections. With over 360,000 ballots cast for three candidates in three different counties, the main objective of this project was to determine the winner of the election based on popular vote. In addition, the following outcomes were also determined: total number of votes cast, a complete list of candidates who received votes, total number of votes each candidate received, and the percentage of votes for each candidate. The election results per county was also analyzed and recorded.
- Data source: election-results.csv
- Language and Tools: Python 3.7.6, Visual Studio Code 1.62.2
Python was utilized to formulate and write the code to complete the goal, and the execution was done in visual studio code. In general, the analysis comprised of creating list and dictionaries, initialzing variables to store and or count data, and writing code to loop through the data to collect the necessary information to complete the aim. The full code is presented in the PyPoll_Challenge.py file.
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The total number of votes cast in the election was 369,711.
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The percentage of total votes and the number of votes for each county in the precinct is presented below
- Jefferson: 10.5% (38,855)
- Denver: 82.8% (306,055)
- Arapahoe: 6.7% (24,801)
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Denver had the largest number of votes, 306,055. The number of votes in Denver represented 82.8% of the total number of votes.
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The results for each candidate from the election is summarized below.
- Charles Casper Stokham received 23.0 % of the votes and 85,213 number of votes
- Diana Degette received 73.8 % of the votes and 272,892 number of votes
- Raymon Anthony Doane received 3.1 % of the votes and 11,606 number of votes
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The winner of the election was Diana DeGette. Diana receieved 272,892 votes, which accounts for 73.8% of the total votes.
A snapshot summarizing the above mentioned results is presented in the image below (see analysis folder for text file).
The presented script works well in predicitng the election results. By defining some of the variables as global variables, accurate and reliable results was obtained and can be used for any number of canadiates and counties. This means the code is highly adaptable and useable where similar (input) data is available. However, if the script is to be used for other elections, perhaps even for this election, some modifications may be necessary to ensure it is adaptable and to further improve confidence in the results. Two examples of such modifications are brifely discussed below.
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Writing a code to check for duplicate votes. To preserve the integrity of the election, especially at a larger scale where fraud may be more prominent, it will be important to have a code that loops through the rows to ensure all ballot ID is unique.
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In every election, there is a process of examining the vote totals to make sure every ballot was counted and there are no clerical errors in the results. This is the "certified results" of the election. Therefore the presented code can perhaps present a print out of this type of information. In general, it is a comparison of ballots cast (total votes) and summation of total votes of each candidate. The presented code may be modified to reflect this by following these steps: create a variable that stores each candidate total votes (in the current code this results is directed to print immediately), sum the total votes from this information, compare it to the overall total votes, and finally write a code for the comparison statement that if the compared values is the same the election results is certified.