Changes in version 0.2.0-1 (2026-10-12)                 

This release corrects the microdata and the catalogs after a systematic
validation against the certified county results of the Florida Division
of Elections and, where available, against official precinct-level
returns (Lee, Palm Beach) and the official ballot-position worksheet of
Miami-Dade. The .RData files on OSF have been replaced (same file names;
OSF keeps the previous versions).

Data: records removed

  - Palm Beach: 8 test decks removed
    (precincts 37, 63, 70, 130, 143, 158, 202 and 226; 60
    identical-pattern records each): 447,946 → 447,466 voters. The
    genuine ballots of these precincts are not in the source files.
  - Hillsborough: 6 test decks removed
    (precincts 103, 143, 363, 357C, 538 and AB29B) and 4 partial
    re-reads of absentee precincts (AB24, AB42, AB49B, AB80): 356,659
    → 355,027 voters.
  - Marion: a test deck in precinct 30 removed (646 identical ballots
    punching 128 of the 171 positions): 105,831 → 105,185 voters.

Data: races corrected

  - Hillsborough
      - A02 and A03 were read from empty positions; they now take the
        votes previously stored as HILRE2 and HILRE3, which are removed.
      - USR30 renamed USR13 (congressional district 13, shared with
        Sarasota).
      - COC1HIL and COC3HIL (district commission seats) were assigned to
        the whole county; their universe is now the voters of each
        district.
      - SHE1: the second position (write-in) is coded O; COC3HIL: Scott
        (Democrat) is coded D.
  - Lee
      - USR14: position mapping shifted by one column; recomputed.
      - SRH72 (which pooled districts 72–75) split into SRH72, SRH73,
        SRH74 and SRH75 with the official precinct-to-district list.
      - HOS3 and HOS5 (hospital board): read one position too early;
        recomputed. Candidate totals now equal the certified ones.
      - New race FMSRE (Fort Myers Shores referendum).
  - Sarasota
      - State House split into SRH69_70 and SRH71_74.
      - VEN3 label corrected; VEN4 regenerated from its own ballot
        positions.
  - Highlands
      - SC1–SC3 read one position too late; recomputed.
      - Precinct 9 assigned to USR16 (it had no congressional district).
      - LPTRE1 restricted to the Lake Placid precincts (17L, 19L).
  - Miami-Dade
      - DADRE2: invalid votes were computed from the DADRE1 positions;
        recomputed, and its universe restricted to the 24 precincts of
        the fire and rescue service area.
      - SRH109 and SRH118: positions without a candidate on the regular
        ballot are no longer counted as votes.
      - SC2: "No" votes of the advance absentee precincts (N401–N466)
        were read from a wrong position; recomputed.
      - STA11: a position without a candidate is no longer coded O.
      - NBC3 (North Bay Village, Harbor Island): the first candidate is
        George A. Kane (code Ka), not Broucek.
  - Pinellas: LEAC5 did not read candidate Adams; recomputed. Its
    universe is limited to the Lealman precincts (voter level in split
    precincts).
  - Pasco: USR9, Duffey (Reform) coded O instead of D.
  - All counties: voters assigned to two districts of the same family
    (congressional, State Senate, State House) in split precincts are
    now assigned to a single district.

Data: races removed (no voters in the source)

AVON, AVRE1 (Highlands), MPRE1, PBSRE1 (Palm Beach), SRH113 and OLRE1
(Miami-Dade).

Catalogs

  - 252 → 247 races (400 county-race columns).
  - Levels follow the types of government of the U.S. Census of
    Governments: federal, state, county, municipal, special_district.
  - Corrected office texts, candidate names and option lists (e.g.
    CICJ4, PINC1, PINC2, HOS3, HOS5, SHE1, WERE2, EWF5, SSC, COC5PAS,
    OLC, D31, D41–D46, D51).
  - Every .RData file contains a single object with the same name as the
    file (e.g. Lee in Lee.RData, Miami_Dade in Miami_Dade.RData).

Package

  - Downloaded county files are cached for the rest of the R session, so
    each county is downloaded only once (e.g. get_county_data() followed
    by ei_summary()); the download timeout is raised to at least 5
    minutes.
  - If a file cannot be downloaded, get_county_data(),
    get_election_data(), ei_summary() and ei_summary_random() show a
    message and return NULL instead of an error.
  - Help pages and print() show the county names as "Miami-Dade" and
    "Palm Beach" (the objects are still Miami_Dade and Palm_Beach).

Known limitations of the source

  - Some precinct files are missing from the source or were overwritten
    by test decks (Palm Beach, Hillsborough, Highlands; in Marion,
    absentee precinct A008). In Palm Beach these files account for the
    whole shortfall: adding the certified votes of the 25 overwritten
    precincts brings the presidential totals to within 19 votes of the
    official ones. Highlands is a partial sample (about 62% of the
    certified votes).
  - The converted ballot files end at a fixed position (VAL227 in
    Hillsborough, VAL171 in Lee), so races at the end of the ballot are
    not recorded (Tampa amendment 6; fire-district and municipal races
    in Lee).

                Changes in version 0.1.0-1 (2026-09-26)                 

  - First release.