Louisiana 2023 State Legislative Lower District Election Candidates ## RDH Date Retrieval 01/23/24 ## Sources [Louisiana Secretary of State](https://www.sos.la.gov/ElectionsAndVoting/GetElectionInformation/SearchForCandidates/Pages/default.aspx) ## Fields: Field Name Description Elect_date Election Date Elect_type Election Type Office Legislative Office District Legislative District Cancelled_election Binary indicating whether election was cancelled Cand_id Unique Candidate ID Cand_name Candidate Name Party Political Party Gender Candidate Gender Race_1 Candidate Race Race_1_Eth Candidate Ethnicity Race_1_type Type of Source to Determine Race Race_1_source Source to Determine Race Race_1_conf Confidence Level Associated with Race Determination Race_1_URL Source URL Street_add Street address (if available) City City (if available) State State name (if available) Zip Zip code (if available) Oth_id_1 Other identities of interest (if available) Oth_id_2 Other identities of interest (if available) Notes Notes from RDH researcher All instances of Race_2 or Race_3 signal a second or third race category applicable to a candidate. ## Notes on Field Names Cand_id column generally follows the pattern, adapted from VEST: The first character is G for a general election, P for a primary, S for a special, and R for a runoff. Characters 2 and 3 are the year of the election.* Characters 4-6 represent the office type (see list below). Character 7 represents the party of the candidate. Characters 8-10 are the first three letters of the candidate's last name. *To fit within the GIS 10 character limit for field names, the naming convention is slightly different for the State Legislature and US House of Representatives. All fields are listed below with definitions. Office Codes Used: SL### - State Legislative Lower SU## - State Legislative Upper CON## - Congressional Party Codes Used: D - Democratic R - Republican G - Green C - Constitution N - No Party Affiliation I - Independent One example is: PSL001RHIL Race_1_Eth, Race_2_Eth, Race_3_Eth Codes Used: Uses the exact spelling from the list of possible ethnicities in Appendix F of the US Census PL technical documentation starting on pg. 193 (https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial/2020/technical-documentation/complete-tech-docs/summary-file/2020Census_PL94_171Redistricting_StatesTechDoc_English.pdf#page=193) Race_1_type, Race_2_type, Race_3_type Codes Used: VF = voter file WEB = a candidate’s website ORG = membership in a racial or ethnic group caucus or organization, or endorsement or funding by a racial or ethnic group NEWS = a news article OTH = anything else Race_1_source, Race_2_source, Race_3_source Codes Used: CAND = race/ethnicity is reported by the candidate OTH = race/ethnicity is reported by someone else, such as a journalist or organization GUES = race/ethnicity is assumed based on a photo or other source of information Race_1_conf, Race_2_conf, Race_3_conf Codes Used: HIGH = high confidence in assuming the race/ethnicity of the person MED = medium confidence in assuming the race/ethnicity of the person LOW = low confidence in assuming the race/ethnicity of the person Oth_id_1; Oth_id_2 Codes Used: CHR = Christian MUS = Muslim HIN = Hindu BUD = Buddhist JUD = Jewish CATH = Catholic LES = Lesbian GAY = Gay BIS = Bisexual TRA = Transexual QUE = Queer IMM = First generation immigrant VET = Veteran INT = Intersex ## Data Collection Notes Unless otherwise noted, the data present in this file was obtained from the Louisiana Secretary of State's office. ## Additional Notes Please direct questions related to processing this dataset to info@redistrictingdatahub.org.