Wikidata:WikiProject elections

Welcome to WikiProject Elections

Goal

The Goal of this project is to set a standard for how items about elections should look like, and to identify the best way of connecting them to other items. The main purpose is to deal with democratic public elections on national and local levels, but we hope that we also should be able to use the ideas here in other circumstances.

Modelling Examples

Groups of Elections

In many countries, different types of elections often happen at essentially the same time: e.g. presidential and legislative elections. In most cases we should ensure that Wikidata has an item for each distinct election (i.e. no individual election item should have more than one office contested (P541) or ballots cast (P1868) value), as well as an item for the combination (using instance of (P31): group of elections (Q76853179)). These should be connected using part of (P361) and has part(s) (P527).

Care should be taken to ensure that the Wikipedia links are correct for these: some languages may have separate items, whilst others only a single page for the combination. (Note also that bots may have imported data at the wrong level of precision due to these sites link being out of sync, and such claims may need to be moved into the more specific item.)

Multi-round elections

When the election has more than one round, an item (instance of (P31): voting round (Q24097670)) must be created for each round.

⟨ French presidential election 2012 first round (Q24102723)  

 ⟩ instance of (P31) ⟨ voting round (Q24097670)  

 ⟩

⟨ French presidential election 2012 first round (Q24102723)  

 ⟩ part of the series (P179) ⟨ 2012 French presidential election (Q487666)  

 ⟩
series ordinal (P1545) ⟨  1 ⟩

⟨ French presidential election 2012 first round (Q24102723)  

 ⟩ point in time (P585) ⟨ 2012-04-22 ⟩

⟨ French presidential election 2012 first round (Q24102723)  

 ⟩ ballots cast (P1868) ⟨  36 584 399 ⟩

⟨ French presidential election 2012 first round (Q24102723)  

 ⟩ total valid votes (P1697) ⟨  35 883 209 ⟩

⟨ French presidential election 2012 second round (Q24103590)  

 ⟩ instance of (P31) ⟨ voting round (Q24097670)  

 ⟩

⟨ French presidential election 2012 second round (Q24103590)  

 ⟩ part of the series (P179) ⟨ 2012 French presidential election (Q487666)  

 ⟩
series ordinal (P1545) ⟨  2 ⟩

⟨ French presidential election 2012 second round (Q24103590)  

 ⟩ point in time (P585) ⟨ 2012-05-6 ⟩

⟨ French presidential election 2012 second round (Q24103590)  

 ⟩ ballots cast (P1868) ⟨  37 016 309 ⟩

⟨ French presidential election 2012 second round (Q24103590)  

 ⟩ total valid votes (P1697) ⟨  34 861 353 ⟩

Showcase items

(Please add some well-modelled items here)

You may find a document with the ontology for the "election items" and its results in several kind of elections, the rational use of information in infobox and the several levels of grouping or represent the information related with the "event of one election". Through the infobox examples pages, you may know data structure for reference cases.
It has been implemented in cawiki, euwiki, glwiki.

Key properties

Before the election date

Before an election takes place, we should ensure that the following minimum properties are provided:

Property	Comment
instance of (P31)	type of election (e.g. presidential election (Q858439), gubernatorial election (Q15261477), mayoral election (Q15280243), legislative election (Q2618461)
office contested (P541)	title of office which election will determine the next holder of
country (P17)	the country in which the election takes place
applies to jurisdiction (P1001)	administrative scope of the election (for national elections, will be the same as country (P17). State or local elections will be at a lower level.
point in time (P585)	If an election spans a long period, start time (P580) and end time (P582) can be used, though it is also good to provide a point in time (P585) at month-, or even year-level precision as well.

These will allow elections to appear on upcoming election calendars.

It may also be possible to start populating the list of candidates (using candidate (P726)) before an election takes place.

After the election

Ideally we will want to include as full election results as possible. This usually means, at a minimum:

successful candidate (P991)	persons (or in some cases parties) elected
ballots cast (P1868)	total number of ballot(s) cast, including invalid or blank ballots (If known, total valid votes (P1697), number of spoilt votes (P5044), number of blank votes (P5045) can also be provided)
eligible voters (P1867) / electorate (P1831)	Most elections will report at least one of these

Candidacies

Candidacies can be recorded via either a candidate (P726) statement on the election item, and/or a candidacy in election (P3602) statement on the person. For elections with large numbers of candidates, the latter is usually more preferable.

Common qualifiers on a candidacy include:

member of political party (P102)	(for individuals; (independent politician (Q327591) if independent)
party chief representative (P210)	(where the candidate is a party, rather than an individual)
votes received (P1111)	(blank until after the election)
ranking (P1352)	this candidate's position in the results (blank until after the election)
candidate number (P4243)	An official candidate number
candidate position (P10777)	this candidate's position on the ballot, or in a Party List
subject named as (P1810)	The name used on the ballot (which may be different from the candidate's commonly used name)
age of subject at event (P3629)	This can be useful where a person's precise date of birth (P569) is unknown

Other properties

number of seats (P1342)	number of seats/members in an assembly
number of seats in assembly (P1410)	number of seats a political party has in a given legislature

Questions to solve

Observe, that there are many ways to set up an election. Sometimes you vote for political parties, other times you vote for persons. Anything between that is also possible.
How the elected candidates are choosen also differ, sometimes even within one single election. One example of that is the EU-parliament, where each country has their own specific rules.
Some elections uses constituencies, sometimes there is one MP for every constituency, other times there are several elected candidate in one constituency.
Some elections makes use of electoral colleges.
In some cases there are more elected MPs than there are seats.
Many elections are repeated if the first round did not give a majority to one candidate.
Sometimes there are different kinds of cooperations between political parties.
There are independant candidates. How should we describe them?
Some candidates are not a member of the political party they represent, or they change membership after the election. How should that be described?
In historical records, the names of the candidates are no longer known. We might not even know the number of votes. How should that be described in a good way?
How should we describe indirect elections, like the election of the Prime minister of UK?
In modern local elections, there is maybe a lot of information about each election. Thousands of persons and political parties get only one or a few votes in each Swedish election. Is it worth the effort to list them, when all we know is their name? They can even be fictional, like Donald Duck (Q6550), who gets a number of votes every four years.

Wikipedia Templates

These Wikipedia infoboxes are used for election-related information, and may be helpful when considering modelling decisions in Wikidata:

Election

Template:Infobox election (Q5855584)
English: Template:Infobox election
French: Modèle:Infobox Élection
Spanish: Plantilla:Ficha de elección
Portuguese: Predefinição:Info/Eleição
Catalan: Infotaula eleccions, copy available in WD: {{Infobox election}}

When a cell for an infobox is in green that's mean that the Wikidata will be fetched.

General information about the election
Wikidata property	⧼wikibase-datatype-label⧽	Qualifiers	EN	FR	ES	Creation level	Description
		-	election_name	nom_élection	nombre_elección		Page name
country (P17)	Item	-	country	pays	país	Created	Country where the election take place
	???	-	flag_year	variante	variante		For historical elections when an older flag design was in effect, enter the year the flag came into effect (not the election year). Default is to use the current flag.
flag image (P41)	commons media file	-	flag_image			Created	For non-country elections, specify the full name of the flag, coat-of-arms, or seal image to display.
	Item	-		endispute2	endisputa2		Show the offices contested so they appear in the table in place of the title
instance of (P31)	Item	-	type	type	tipo	Created	The type of election
		-		période	período		Office's term with a begining and an end?
		-	vote_type				The type of votes recorded at popular_voten. Defaults to "Popular".
	boolean	-	ongoing	encours	encurso		Must be either yes or no, whether the election is yet to take place, or completed.
	boolean	-	party_colour				Only for display reason.
	boolean	-	party_name				Only for display reason.
follows (P155)	Item	-	previous_election	élection_précédente	elección_anterior	Created	The page name of the previous election of this type.
point in time (P585)	Point in time	-	election_date	date_élection	fecha_elección	Created	Date of election. When there is more than one round, this property is in the item round.
	Item	-	elected_mps				Wikilink to the MPs elected in this election.
followed by (P156)	Item	-	next_election	élection_suivante	siguiente_elección	Created	The page name of the next election of this type
	Number (not available yet)	-	votes_for_election				The number of votes for election and the system of voting (eg. Electoral College).
	Number (not available yet)	-	needed_votes				The number of votes required to win.
number of seats (P1342)	Item	-	seats_for_election	endispute	endisputa		The number of seats for election and the house or chamber the seats are for.
	Number (not available yet)	-	majority_seats				The number of seats required for a majority government.
	???	-	opinion_polls				Pagename or section anchor of opinion polls.
Demographic and statistical information
Wikidata property	⧼wikibase-datatype-label⧽	Qualifiers	EN	FR	ES	Creation level	Description
population (P1082)	Number (not available yet)	-		habitants	habitantes	Created	Population
electorate (P1831)	Number (not available yet)	-		enregistrés	registrados		Number of electors registered on the electoral system
ballots cast (P1868)	Number (not available yet)	-		votants	votantes		Electors who participated from the election. When there is more than one round, this property is in the item round.
ballots cast (P1868)	Number (not available yet)	-		votants2	votantes2		Electors who participated on the runoff. When there is more than one round, this property is in the item round.
	Number (not available yet)	-	turnout	participation	participación		Voter turnout for this election.
	Number (not available yet)	-		participation_pré	participación_ant		Voter turnout for the last election of a kind
	Number (not available yet)	-		participation2	participación2		Voter turnout for the runoff
total valid votes (P1697)	Number (not available yet)	-		valables	válidos		Valid votes. When there is more than one round, this property is in the item round.
total valid votes (P1697)	Number (not available yet)	-		valables2	válidos2		Valid votes on the runoff. When there is more than one round, this property is in the item round.
number of blank votes (P5045)	Number (not available yet)	-		blancs	blancos		Blank votes
number of blank votes (P5045)	Number (not available yet)	-		blancs2	blancos2		Blank votes on the runoff
number of spoilt votes (P5044)	Number (not available yet)	-		nuls	nulos		Null votes
number of spoilt votes (P5044)	Number (not available yet)	-		nuls2	nulos2		Null votes on the runoff
	???	-		campagne	campaña		Campaigning period
	free text	-		débat	debate		Dates of most important debates
Information specific to each candidature
Wikidata property	⧼wikibase-datatype-label⧽	Qualifiers	EN	FR	ES	Creation level	Description
image (P18)	Commons media file	-	image<X>	image<X>	imagen<X>	Created	Image of Nominee, head of Party list or Party Leader.
	Strings that are not translated	-	colour<X> color<X>	couleur<X>	color<X>		Enter a hex colour code (without the #) to override the border colour of image
candidate (P726)	Item	-	nominee<X> candidate<X>	candidat<X>	candidato<X>		Name of Nominee or Candidate
	Item	-	leader<X>	chef<X>	líder<X>		Name of head of Party list or Party Leader
	Item	-	party<X>	parti<X>	partido<X>		Political Party using Political party shortname templates.
	Item	-	alliance<X>	coalition<X>	coalición<X>		Political alliance in elections where coalition politics is common.
	Item	-		parti<Y>_coalition<X>	partido<Y>_coalición<X>		Party of the alliance
	Item	-	home_state<X>				The state the Nominee or Candidate represents
	Item	-	running_mate<X>	colistier<X>			The Nominee's Running mate.
	Number (not available yet)	-	electoral_vote<X>	vote_électoral<X>	voto_electoral<X>		The electoral votes obtained by the Nominee
	Number (not available yet)	-	delegate_count<X>				The aggregate number of delegates obtained by the candidate. Intended for use in pre-election processes such as selection of delegates to United States presidential nominating conventions. Intended to be used instead of electoral_vote1 for these cases.
	Number (not available yet)?	-	states_carried<X>				The states carried or won by the Nominee.
	Point in time	-	leader_since1<X>				The states carried or won by the Nominee.
	Item	-	leaders_seat<X>				The seat the Leader represents
	Number (not available yet)	-	seats_before<X>	sièges<X>_pré	escaños<X>_ant		The seat count before the election, labeled 'current seats' if the election is yet to take place.
	Number (not available yet)	-	seats_needed<X>				The seats required to gain an overall majority.
	Number (not available yet)	-	seats<X>				The seats won at the election.
number of seats in assembly (P1410)	Number (not available yet)	-	seats_after<X>	sièges<X>	escaños<X>		The seat count after the election
	Number (not available yet)	-	seat_change<X>				The change in the number of seats won at the election compared to the previous election.
	Number (not available yet)	-	popular_vote<X>	votes<X>	votos<X>		The number of votes obtained by the Nominee or Party.
votes received (P1111)	Number (not available yet)	-		votes2v<X>	votos2v<X>		Número de votos obtenidos por el candidato, partido o fuerza política en la segunda vuelta o balotaje. (es) / Suffrages au second tour. (fr) – (Please translate this into English.)
	Number (not available yet)	-	percentage<X>	pourcentage<X>	porcentaje<X>		The percentage of the popular vote obtained by the Nominee or Party.
	Number (not available yet)	-	swing<X>				The swing or change in popular vote at the election compared to the previous election.
Information about poll
Wikidata property	⧼wikibase-datatype-label⧽	Qualifiers	EN	FR	ES	Creation level	Description
	Point in time	-	poll<X>_date				The date of an opinion poll
	Number (not available yet)	-	poll<X>_nominee<Y>				TThe percentage poll <X> gave to nominee <Y>.
	Number (not available yet)	-	poll<X>_party<Y>				TThe percentage poll <X> gave to party <Y>.
Auxiliary rows
Wikidata property	⧼wikibase-datatype-label⧽	Qualifiers	EN	FR	ES	Creation level	Description
	free text	-	<X>blank				Title of an <X> auxiliary row.
	free text	-	<X>data<Y>				Data <X> for nominee or party <Y>
map
Wikidata property	⧼wikibase-datatype-label⧽	Qualifiers	EN	FR	ES	Creation level	Description
	Commons media file	-	map_image	carte	mapa	Not done	Page name for the election map file.
		-	map_alt				Alt text for the election map.
		-	map				A freeform replacement for the above, which can be used to insert extension:ImageMaps or templates instead of images.
	Multilingual text (not available yet)	-	map_caption	carte_sous-titre	mapa_subtítulo		Caption on image of the election map to be displayed.
	???	-		légende_carte1	leyenda_mapa1		Leyenda del mapa electoral (columna izquierda). (es) / Légende de la carte, à gauche si plusieurs colonnes (fr) – (Please translate this into English.)
	???	-		légende_carte2	leyenda_mapa2		Leyenda del mapa electoral (columna derecha). (es) / Légende de la carte, à droite si plusieurs colonnes (fr) – (Please translate this into English.)
Results of the election
Wikidata property	⧼wikibase-datatype-label⧽	Qualifiers	EN	FR	ES	Creation level	Description
office contested (P541)	Item	-	title	poste	cargo		Title of the leader before the election. (President, Speaker, Government, Prime Minister...)
	Item	-	before_election	prédécesseur	predecesor		The leader in power before the election, labeled incumbent if the election is yet to take place.
	Item	-	before_party	parti_prédécesseur	partido_predecesor		The party in power before the election.
	Item	-	posttitle				Title of the leader before the election. (President, Speaker, Government, Prime Minister...)
successful candidate (P991)	Item	-	after_election	successeur	sucesor	Created	The leader in power as a result of the election.
	Item	-	after_party	parti_successeur	partido_sucesor		The party in power as a result of the election.
...	...	-	...	...	...	...	...

Infobox Layout

Wikidata property	⧼wikibase-datatype-label⧽	Qualifiers	EN	FR	ES	Creation level	Description
-	???	-		fond		-	Couleur d'arrière-plan du tableau. (fr) – (Please translate this into English.)
-	???	-		fond2		-	Couleur d'arrière-plan du titre et des sous-titres. (fr) – (Please translate this into English.)
-	Number (not available yet)	-			ancho		Determina el ancho de la plantilla, incluyendo las imágenes de candidatos, partidos o fuerzas políticas (es) / Largeur de l'infobox (fr) – (Please translate this into English.)
-	Number (not available yet)	-	map_size	taille carte	mapa_tamaño	-	Size of image of the election map to be displayed.

Political party / Politische Partei / Parti politique / Partido político

English:
Template:Infobox political party
Deutsch:
Vorlage:Infobox Partei
Français :
Modèle:Infobox Parti politique
Español:
Plantilla:Ficha de partido político

Wikidata property	⧼wikibase-datatype-label⧽	Qualifiers	EN	FR	ES	Creation level	Description
	Multilingual text (not available yet)	-	name	nom	-	-	name of the party
logo image (P154)	URL	-	logo	logo	-	Created	Logo of the party.
member count (P2124)	Number (not available yet)	-	membership	adhérents	membresía	Created	Number of members of the party.
has part(s) (P527)	Item	-	newspaper, think_tank, student_wing, youth_wing, wing1, wing2, wing3, wing_title1, wing_title2, wing_title3	courant interne au parti	juventud, estudiantil, publicación, radio	Created	Organizations and associations linked to the party (use P518 as qualifier)
sRGB color hex triplet (P465)	String	-	colorcode	Sièges/hex	-	Created	Color code of the party. HTML color code (e.g. red, #FF0000 ) or transparent for no coloring.

Officeholder / Politicien / Autoridad

English:
Template:Infobox officeholder
Français :
Modèle:Infobox Politicien
Plantilla:Ficha de autoridad
Template:Infobox officeholder (Q5830052)

Politics of / Politique en

Even in these models are not infoboxs they could be included in this taskforce.

Template:Politics box (Q6064622)

General information about the election
Wikidata property	Datatype	Qualifiers	EN	FR	ES	Creation level	Description
		-		modèle			Model name
country (P17)	Item	-	country	pays	país	Created	Country where the election take place
	Item	-		article			Article sur l'article sur la politique du pays (fr) – (Please translate this into English.)
coat of arms image (P94)	commons media file	-		armoiries		Created	coat-of-arms image to display.
flag image (P41)	commons media file	-		drapeau		Created	specify the full name of the flag to display.

Reports

Useful reports for missing or untidy data:

Election items with no office contested (P541) statements: upcoming | recent
Election items with no country (P17) statements: upcoming | recent
Election items with no point in time (P585) statements: report
Electoral districts: property dashboard

Participants

[+] Add yourself to the list

The participants listed below can be notified using the following template in discussions:
{{Ping project|elections}}