Election data transparency, accessibility, and usability constitute key dimensions of electoral integrity, as they allow for an additional accountability check on how states and localities run elections. Yet, it is an understudied topic, because of challenges in systematic data collection. Lack of data transparency has important implications for a democratic election process: It can reflect non-compliance with federal and state election laws, discriminatory practices, or lack of capacity in modernizing the conduct of elections. Thus far, there is no standard way for states to report election data, and there is no standard way to request, collect, and disseminate them. This paper presents the various ways state and local governments make official precinct-level election results publicly available, based on an OpenElections collection effort that covered primary and general elections in 2016 and 2018 in every U.S. state. We describe methods for obtaining official precinct results, ranging from formal records requests under state law, photographing pages in-person, to results sent by fax, and the benefits and costs of those methods. Using this information, local and state officials could adopt processes and policies to promote public access to official precinct-level election results.

选举数据的透明度、可访问性和可用性构成了选举完整性的关键维度，因为它们允许对州和地方如何进行选举进行额外的问责制检查。然而，由于系统数据收集方面的挑战，这是一个未被充分研究的话题。缺乏数据透明度对民主选举过程具有重要影响：它可能反映不遵守联邦和州选举法、歧视性做法或缺乏使选举进行现代化的能力。到目前为止，各州还没有标准的方式来报告选举数据，也没有标准的方式来请求、收集和传播这些数据。本文介绍了州和地方政府公开发布官方选区级选举结果的各种方式，基于涵盖 2016 年和 2018 年美国各州初选和大选的 OpenElections 收集工作。我们描述了获取官方选区结果的方法，从州法律规定的正式记录请求、亲自拍摄页面到通过传真发送的结果，以及这些方法的收益和成本。利用这些信息，地方和州官员可以采用流程和政策来促进公众获取官方选区级选举结果。