ICPSR ID Numbers Page

Corrected ICPSR Member ID Numbers Congresses 1 - 113

Updated 5 June 2015

During the many years that we have been analyzing the history of congressional roll call voting, Howard Rosenthal and I have found many errors in the original ICPSR data files (especially during the early Congresses). The files below contain the corrections made by ourselves as well as many other scholars who have shared their data with us.

We welcome contributions to and questions about these files (please send E-Mail to Keith Poole ktpoole@uga.edu ).

The format of the files is:


          1.  Congress Number
          2.  ICPSR ID Number (Current):  corrected ID numbers
          3.  State Code:  2 digit ICPSR State Code
          4.  Congressional District Number (0 if Senate)
          5.  State Name
          6.  Party Code:  100 = Dem., 200 = Repub. (See Party3.dat)
          7.  Name (short and long form)

The most common error we found with the ID number was the assigning of the same number to two different individuals with the same last name (usually a Father and Son). We also found a number of cases where the same ID number was used for two completely different individuals -- one who served in the House and one who served in the Senate. We also found a number of cases where the same individual received two ID numbers. Since the 1980s the ICPSR has corrected a number of these errors. The ID field shows the number we use in our work.

The state, congressional district, and party codes in our data base correspond to Ken Martis's The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. Howard and I consider Martis's Atlas to be the best source of information about party affiliation of members of Congress so that our data base can be considered to be very "clean". Congresses 1 - 112 have been extensively checked by ourselves and other scholars. Party3.dat contains the dictionary for the party codes. Please cite Ken Martis's atlas as the original source if you use these codes in any way.

The files below are all text files sorted by Congress, State, Congressional District Number (House only), and seat occupant.