Dr. Dean Taciuch
George Mason University

Fall 2009

Quantitative Data Analysis Exercise

Using the data from the Electoral History Charts at FiveThirtyEight, and some other factual (not interpretive) sources, describe the results of the 1948 and 1968 US Presidential elections.

Good factual sources include the Wikipedia entries on the 1948 and 1968 elections.

Describe what you see in the election numbers, and answer the following questions:

1. What was the result of third party candidates in these two elections?
2. What do these third-party candidates have in common? (Use Wikipedia to determine the third-party candidates' platforms)
3. Can you speculate on how these candidates affected the election results in the next election cycles (1952 and 1972 respectively)

Use the numbers from the Electoral History Charts to support your speculations.