An R Package for Australian Election Data • scgElectionsAU

Overview

scgElectionsAU is an R package providing comprehensive data and tools for analysing Australia’s federal election results from 2004 to 2022. It offers a unique insight into the dynamics of the electoral process in Australia, presented through a variety of datasets and functions.

Datasets Included:

get_election_data: download and process election data from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC). See full guide here.
get_disclosure_data: download disclosure/financial data from the AEC’s Transparency Register. See full guide here.
get_boundary_data: download boundary data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). See full guide here.

Installation

To install the development version of scgElectionsAU, use:

devtools::install_github("sarahcgallLtd/scgElectionsAU")

Usage

scgElectionsAU includes several helper functions to enhance data analysis:

Example usage:

library(scgElectionsAU)

# Load a dataset
df <- get_election_data(
  file_name = "National list of candidates",
  date_range = list(from = "2022-01-01", to = "2025-01-01"), # for elections between 2022 and 2025 (default)
  type = "Federal Election", # Default (other options: "Referendum", or "By-Election")
  category = "House", # Default (other options: "Senate", "Referendum", "General", or "Statistics")
  process = TRUE # Default (can turn off automated processing by selecting FALSE)
)

Explore detailed examples and dataset descriptions in the package documentation.

Data Sources and Disclaimer

Data Sources

The datasets in the scgElectionsAU package are meticulously curated from the official results sourced from the Australian Electoral Commission and Australian Bureau of Statistics. These datasets offer a comprehensive view of Australia’s electoral outcomes and are crucial for in-depth analysis and research in political science, electoral studies, and related fields.

Disclaimer

While the utmost care has been taken to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data, the Australian Electoral Commission was not involved in the development of this package and thus does not bear responsibility for any errors or omissions in the datasets. Users of scgElectionsAU should note that the package’s creators have independently compiled, processed, and presented the data. Any discrepancies or inaccuracies found within the datasets do not reflect on the official records maintained by the Electoral Commission.

Currency of Data

The data included in this package are up-to-date as of 2 March 2025. Users should be aware that subsequent electoral events or data revisions by the Electoral Commission after this date may not be reflected in the current version of scgElectionsAU.

Future Additions and Updates

Upcoming functional updates will focus on visualising election results specific to Australia and making boundary adjustments for better comparative analysis.

Feedback and Contributions

Suggestions and contributions are welcome. For any proposed additions, amendments, or feedback, please create an issue.

Check out scgUtils for additional functions and visualisation tools.

scgElectionsAU