Polling Places

Author

Jo Hardin

Published

January 16, 2024

library(tidyverse) # ggplot, lubridate, dplyr, stringr, readr...
library(tidytext)
library(praise)
library(paletteer)

The Data

The dataset comes from The Center for Public Integrity. Each row represents a US polling place (location to vote in an election) across many elections from 2012 to 2020.

polling <- readr::read_csv('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rfordatascience/tidytuesday/master/data/2024/2024-01-16/polling_places.csv') |>
  mutate(year = year(election_date),
         name = tolower(name),
         address = tolower(address))

Where did people poll?

polling <- polling |>
  mutate(location_type = case_when(
    grepl("church", name) | grepl("church", address) ~ "church",
    grepl("community", name) | grepl("community", address) ~ "community center",
    grepl("comm", name) | grepl("comm", address) ~ "community center",
    grepl("rec center", name) | grepl("rec center", address) ~ "community center",
    grepl("recreation", name) | grepl("recreation", address) ~ "community center",
    grepl("activity", name) | grepl("activity", address) ~ "community center",
    grepl("fire", name) | grepl("fire", address)~ "fire dept",
    grepl("vfd", name) | grepl("vfd", address) ~ "fire dept",
    grepl("baptist", name) | grepl("baptist", address) ~ "church",
    grepl("methodist", name) | grepl("methodist", address) ~ "church",
    grepl("unitarian", name) | grepl("unitarian", address) ~ "church",
    grepl("chapel", name) | grepl("chapel", address) ~ "church",
    grepl("parish", name) | grepl("parish", address) ~ "church",
    grepl("god", name) | grepl("god", address) ~ "church",
    grepl("christian", name) | grepl("christian", address) ~ "church",
    grepl("synagogue", name) | grepl("synagogue", address) ~ "church",
    grepl("friends meet", name) | grepl("friends meet", address) ~ "church",
    grepl("holy", name) | grepl("holy", address) ~ "church",
    grepl("elementary", name) | grepl("elementary", address) ~ "elementary school",
    grepl("kindergarten", name) | grepl("kindergarten", address) ~ "elementary school",
    grepl("elem sch", name) | grepl("elem sch", address) ~ "elementary school",
    grepl("middle school", name) | grepl("middle school", address) ~ "post-elementary school",
    grepl("junior high", name) | grepl("junior high", address) ~ "post-elementary school",
    grepl("sr high", name) | grepl("sr high", address) ~ "post-elementary school",
    grepl("sr high", name) | grepl("sr high", address) ~ "post-elementary school",
    grepl("school", name) | grepl("school", address) ~ "other school",
    grepl("college", name) | grepl("college", address) ~ "other school",
    grepl("academy", name) | grepl("academy", address) ~ "other school",
    grepl("civic center", name) | grepl("civic center", address) ~ "city center",
    grepl("chamber of commerce", name) | grepl("chamber of commerce", address) ~ "city center",
    grepl("courthouse", name) | grepl("courthoue", address) ~ "city center",
    grepl("cultural center", name) | grepl("cultural center", address) ~ "community center",  
    grepl("town hall", name) | grepl("town hall", address) ~ "city center",
    grepl("library", name) | grepl("library", address) ~ "library",
    grepl("veteran", name) | grepl("veteran", address) ~ "hall",
    grepl("vfw", name) | grepl("vfw", address) ~ "hall",
    grepl("legion", name) | grepl("legion", address) ~ "hall",
    grepl("masonic", name) | grepl("masonic", address) ~ "hall",
    grepl("elk", name) | grepl("elk", address) ~ "hall",
    grepl("hall", name) | grepl("hall", address) ~ "hall",
    grepl("senior", name) | grepl("senior", address) ~ "senior",
    grepl("elderly", name) | grepl("elderly", address) ~ "senior",
    grepl("vote center", name) | grepl("vote center", address) ~ "vote center",
    TRUE ~ "other"
  ))
pal <- c("#000000","#004949","#009292","#ff6db6","#ffb6db",
 "#490092","#006ddb","#b66dff","#6db6ff","#b6dbff",
 "#920000","#924900","#db6d00","#24ff24","#ffff6d")


polling |>
  ggplot(aes(fill = location_type, x = year)) + 
  geom_bar() + 
  scale_x_continuous(breaks=seq(2012,2020,2)) + 
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 45, vjust = 1, hjust=1)) +
  labs(x = "", fill = "location type")  + 
  scale_fill_manual(values = pal) +
  coord_flip()

Bar plot of number of polling places in each year, broken down by the type of location. Years range from 2012 to 2020, and there are more polling places over time. The common location types for polling places are churches, community centers, schools, fire departments, and halls.

Bar plot of number of polling places in each year, broken down by the type of location.
library(geofacet)

polling |>
  ggplot(aes(fill = location_type, x = year)) + 
  geom_bar() + 
  theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 45, vjust = 1, hjust=1)) +
  labs(x = "", fill = "location type")  + 
  scale_x_continuous(breaks=seq(2012,2020,4)) + 
  scale_y_continuous(breaks=seq(0,15000,10000)) + 
  scale_fill_manual(values = pal) +
  coord_flip() + 
  facet_geo(~state) + 
  theme(strip.text=element_text(size=8))

Bar plot of number of polling places in each year, broken down by the type of location. Years range from 2012 to 2020, and there are more polling places over time. The common location types for polling places are churches, community centers, schools, fire departments, and halls. Faceting by state does not provide much information, as many states do not have information provided and there are too many location types to see clearly when broken down by state.

Bar plot of number of polling places in each year, broken down by the type of location, faceted by state.
praise()
[1] "You are classy!"