Ace Comparative Data

Ace Comparative Data is the successor to the Electoral Process Information Collection

The ACE partner organisations: Elections Canada, EISA, Instituto Federal Electoral — Mexico, IFES, International IDEA, UNDP, UNEAD and UNDESA.

The European Commission is an ex officio partner. See (http://aceproject.org/about-en/full-partners) for more information.

The ACE Electoral Knowledge Network is used by a wide range of stakeholders; such as electoral management bodies and practitioners, parliamentarians, academics, media and international organisations (approximately 1,1 million unique visitors per year (1,3 million visits)).

The data is compiled through a multiple-choice survey about national elections on a country-by-country basis. The multiple-choice aspect of the survey allows for comparative statistics. However, at the same time there are provisions for entering more in-depth information in a comments section following each question. The data source is listed under each country sample, e.g. constitution or electoral law. Information is also available in French and Spanish.

Global: more than 180 countries.
Time coverage: First data: 2001 (EPIC project).
Latest data: Collected in 2010.
Stated Frequency: Continuous.

For more information contact International IDEA, at: ace.facilitators@idea.int.

The data has been collected from multiple choice surveys by the organizations’ researchers in close cooperation with, among others, regional partners, and the Electoral Management Bodies (EMB) in the respective countries. The database provides comparative and country-by-country results, on the following 11 election related topic areas: Electoral Systems, Legal Framework, Electoral Management, Boundary Delimitation, Voter Education, Voter Registration, Voting Operations, Parties and Candidates, Vote Counting, Media and Elections and Direct Democracy.

The data has been collected from multiple choice surveys by the organizations’ researchers in close cooperation with, among others, regional partners, and the Electoral Management Bodies (EMB) in the respective countries. The database provides comparative and country-by-country results, on the following 11 election related topic areas: Electoral Systems, Legal Framework, Electoral Management, Boundary Delimitation, Voter Education, Voter Registration, Voting Operations, Parties and Candidates, Vote Counting, Media and Elections and Direct Democracy.

Data can be accessed not only in tables but as pie charts, bar charts, world maps, excel files etc.

The ACE Comparative Data provides a systematic collection of how countries manage their elections. By presenting information about electoral systems, electoral management, legislative framework, voter registration, voter education and other related topics in a wide range of countries, users are able to compare and identify common practice within electoral administration.

The ACE Comparative Data database is not an indicator of electoral rights per se. Although it does provide insight on how well de jure rights associated with elections are covered in a given country, it does not say anything about the enforcement of these rights.