Final Project Extension - Rutherford Early Voting Turnout

In this chart, I took data from the Rutherford County Election Commission to determine how many people voted on a day-to-day basis before Election Day. The beginning and end of the early voting period are the most active days.

And here are the percentages of which particular precinct voted early in Rutherford County. Click on a precinct to discover specific numbers!

Code

if (!require("tidyverse"))
  install.packages("tidyverse")
if (!require("foreign"))
  install.packages("foreign")
if (!require("sf"))
  install.packages("sf")
if (!require("scales"))
  install.packages("scales")
if (!require("mapview"))
  install.packages("mapview")
if (!require("leaflet"))
  install.packages("leaflet")
if (!require("leaflet.extras2"))
  install.packages("leaflet.extras2")

library(tidyverse)
library(foreign)
library(sf)
library(scales)
library(mapview)
library(leaflet)
library(leafpop)

# Fetch and unzip the early voting files

download.file("https://github.com/drkblake/Data/raw/refs/heads/main/DailyEVFiles.zip","DailyEVFiles.zip")
unzip("DailyEVFiles.zip")

# Read the first daily voting file

AddData <- read.dbf("10162024.dbf")
AllData <- AddData

# Add each day's  file name to this list, then run

datafiles <- c("10172024.dbf",
               "10182024.dbf",
               "10192024.dbf",
               "10212024.dbf",
               "10222024.dbf",
               "10232024.dbf",
               "10242024.dbf",
               "10252024.dbf",
               "10262024.dbf",
               "10282024.dbf",
               "10292024.dbf",
               "10302024.dbf",
               "10312024.dbf")

for (x in datafiles) {
  AddData <- read.dbf(x, as.is = FALSE)
  AllData <- rbind(AllData, AddData)
}

# Save AllData file as .csv
write_csv(AllData,"EarlyVoterData2024.csv")

# Get total votes so far

TotalVotes <- nrow(AllData)
PctVotes <- round((TotalVotes / 224746)*100, digits = 0)

VotesByDay <- AllData %>% 
  group_by(VOTEDDATE) %>% 
  summarize(Votes = n()) %>% 
  rename(Date = VOTEDDATE) %>% 
  mutate(Date = (str_remove(Date,"2024-")))

# "#2C7865" is a green shade

chart = ggplot(data = VotesByDay,
               aes(x = Date,
                   y = Votes))+
  geom_bar(stat="identity", fill = "#41B3A2") +
  geom_text(aes(label=comma(Votes)),
            vjust=1.6,
            color="black",
            size=3.5)+
  theme(
    axis.title.x = element_blank(),
    axis.ticks.y = element_blank(),
    axis.title.y = element_blank(),
    axis.text.y = element_blank(),
    panel.background = element_blank())

chart

### Precinct-level map of early voting turnout ***

# Aggregate early voting data by precinct

PrecinctData <- AllData %>% 
  group_by(PCT_NBR) %>% 
  summarize(Votes = n()) %>% 
  rename(Precinct = PCT_NBR)

# Download and unzip a precinct map to pair with the vote data

download.file("https://github.com/drkblake/Data/raw/main/Voting_Precincts_5_31_24.zip","TNVotingPrecincts.zip")

unzip("TNVotingPrecincts.zip")

All_Precincts <- read_sf("Voting_Precincts_5_31_24.shp")

# Filter for RuCo precincts and 
# strip dash from precinct numbers

County_Precincts <- All_Precincts %>%
  filter(COUNTY == 149) %>%
  rename(Precinct = NEWVOTINGP) %>% 
  mutate(Precinct = (str_remove(Precinct,"-")))

MapData <-  left_join(PrecinctData, County_Precincts, by = "Precinct")

RegData <- read_csv("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/drkblake/Data/refs/heads/main/RegVotersRuCo.csv") %>% 
  mutate(Precinct = as.character(Precinct))

MapData <- left_join(MapData, RegData, by = "Precinct")

MapData <- MapData %>% 
  mutate(Percent = round((Votes/RegVoters)*100), digits = 0) %>%
  rename(Voters = RegVoters) %>% 
  select(Precinct, Votes, Voters, Percent, geometry)

MapData_sf <- st_as_sf(MapData)

Map <- mapview(
  MapData_sf,
  zcol = "Percent",
  layer.name = "Pct. early voted",
  popup = popupTable(
    MapData_sf,
    feature.id = FALSE,
    row.numbers = FALSE,
    zcol = c(
      "Precinct",
      "Votes",
      "Voters",
      "Percent"
    )
  )
)

Map

MinTurnout <- min(MapData$Percent)
MaxTurnout <- max(MapData$Percent)
MedianTurnout <- median(MapData$Percent)
MeanTurnout <- mean(MapData$Percent)