Basic Population Data |
Voting District Maps |
Electorate Information
County Auditors & Election Boards |
Cities, Towns, Counties & School Districts
| Newspapers
Following are selected resources to help you find information for your PS357 research paper. For further questions and research help, stop by the Government Publications Reference Desk, Ground Floor, Suzzallo Library, or email us at govpub@u.washington.edu.
Basic Population Data
Find the racial composition of the community within your jurisdiction by using the Census Bureau's American Factfinder.
http://factfinder.census.gov
Use the "Fast Access to Information" box to find basic information about cities, towns, counties (not school districts). You can also generate maps for each statistic in the table (link to maps is on far right margin of table).
http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/sdds/index.asp
Use the National Center for Education Statistics School Distric Demographics System to find population data for school districts.
- Click on School District Profiles
- Click on Census 2000
- Select primary area Washington, click Submit Selections
- Select school district, click Submit Selections
- Click the radio button (i.e. circle) for Race and Ethnicity 2000 Data (P.L.94-171)
Voting District Maps
Once you open the map, you may need to use the Zoom feature to see details.
- Go to http://ftp2.census.gov/plmap/pl_vtd/.
- Select your state,then your county, then the first map from the list (file name will end with _000.pdf -- this is the Index Map for the entire county).
- Determine which numbered cell corresponds to your area (example:12), then click your browser's Back button to return to the list of maps.
- Select the filename ending in the appropriate number for your area (example: 012.pdf).
The map legend is in the upper right corner. The Voting District boundaries are blue.
Make a note of the voting district numbers for your geographic area. The last 3 numbers are what you will use in the next step. For example, the number on the map may be 17303. The voting district is 303.
Basic Population for Voting Districts
Now that you know your Voting District numbers, you may find data about your districts by going to the "Data Sets" feature on American Factfinder
- Go to http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DatasetMainPageServlet?_program=DEC&_submenuId=datasets_1&_lang=en.
- Scroll down the list of data files in the center of the page and select "Census 2000 Redistricting Data (P.L. 94-171) Summary File" (Note: this is five files up from the bottom of the screen).
- Select "Detailed Tables".
- Choose "Voting District/Remainder"as your Geographic Type.
- Choose your State
- Choose your County
- Click on one of your voting districts, then click Add. Repeat this until you've added all of the districts you need.
- Click NEXT
- You now have a choice of 4 tables. Click on a table, click add. Repeat until you've added all the tables you want to examine.
- Click on Show Result
Electorate information: Table PCT44 - Sex by Age by Citizenship
- Go to http://factfinder.census.gov
- Choose "Data Sets" from left navigation bar.
- Choose "Census 2000 Summary File 4 (SF 4) - Sample Data" (the fourth link down on the list).
- Choose "Detailed Tables".
- Choose your geography - a Place, County, etc.
- Choose Washington State
- Click on your Place, County, etc.,
- Click Add
- Click Next
- Click on Table PCT44 Sex by Age by Citizenship from the lengthy list of tables.
- Click Add
- Click Next
- Select one or more race or ethnic groups and click Add
(recommended choices: Total population, White alone, Black alone, AIAN alone, Asian alone, and NHPI alone).- Click Show Result
County Auditors & Election Boards
Cities, towns, counties and school districts
- Election website of Washington's Secretary of State
- County Auditors/Elections Departments in Washington State - an alphabetical list
- County Auditors/Elections Departments in Washington State - a clickable map
- Vote Washington
By changing the number at the end of the url, you can change counties. Chelan=4; Clallam=5; Franklin=11; King=17; Kitsap=18; Okanogan=24; Pierce=27; Snohomish=31; and Yakima=39. Provides archived election results for the counties.- Voters Pamphlets:
Call number: JK9201 W383
Location: Gov Pubs Reference 2007; earlier years are in Suzzallo/Allen stacks
Note: for this quarter 1996-2006 being held at Gov Pubs Reference
- School Districts: possible source of school board member photos.
- Washington State yearbook:
Call number: JK9201 W383
Location: Gov Pubs Reference 2006; earlier years are in Suzzallo/Allen stacks
Note: for this quarter 1995-2005 being held at Gov Pubs Reference
- Directory of county officials in Washington State : Call number: JS451.W29 W28 2007 Location: Government Publications Reference; 1970-2006 available in Special Collections Pacific Northwest Collection
Newspapers
Washington State Newsstand
Includes 18 newspapers published in Washington state. Mostly full-text, mid 1980s to present.Additional Washington State newspapers
The UW Libraries subscribes to a number of Washington State papers in smaller communities, available in Microforms and Newspapers, ground floor, Suzzallo Library. This webpage links to the online versions of these papers when available.
