The San Francisco Public Library is thrilled to share our dataset from the San Francisco Ballot Propositions Database on DataSF. This dataset contains full text of San Francisco ballot propositions dating back to 1907 and links to digitized PDF versions of the pamphlets for each election.

Visit SFPL's San Francisco Ballot Propositions Database for a keyword searchable interface and links to Voter Information pamphlets.

San Francisco Public Library received a Library Services and Technology grant to finance the digital scanning and microfilming of the Library's print collection of voter information pamphlets and handbooks for San Francisco municipal elections. Although not complete, the collection dates back to 1907. Approximately 59,000 voter pamphlet pages, including 1,500 propositions, were digitized into PDF files. For some elections, separate pamphlets were created for each voting district or a combination of each voting district and political party, and there is no singular representative pamphlet which includes all of the candidates for that election. As a result, the hard copies of the various pamphlets were bound together to represent that particular election, and this resulted in extra-large digitized versions.

Because the PDF files of the voter pamphlets are images instead of text, they cannot be searched electronically. San Francisco Public Library staff developed the San Francisco Ballot Propositions Database to provide keyword access to San Francisco propositions, pass/fail outcomes and other information, and links to the full-text PDF Voter Information Pamphlet.

C. UPDATE PROCESS

This dataset is updated when the final election results from the San Francisco Department of Elections are available.

This dataset contains the number and percentage of ballots cast, percentage required to pass, as well as pass/fail outcomes, the full text of each proposition, and a link to a PDF version of the Voter Information Pamphlet for that election, if available.