I sort of knew this was coming, but it is nice to see it out there: At least from 2002-2008, historical election results are now online. And no, the City did not put them there.

Stephanie Frank Singer, a computer-savvy activist with a nonprofit organization dedicated to "election transparency," recently paid $195 to the city commissioners to buy six years' worth of Philadelphia election results, and she's making them available to the public - for free - through her Web site, www.campaignscientific.com. (Look down the list on the left-hand side for "Phila election results".)

The data include division-by-division results on every Philadelphia election beginning with 2002. For people interested in just a couple of wards or divisions, Singer created an easier search device at www.philadems.org/results.shtml.

None of this is rocket science. Singer got the results for 15 elections on the Web within an hour after buying the data from city election officials. She estimates that she spent eight hours creating the search device.

While our fight with the Commissioners has been going on, Stephanie has been pushing the Commissioners behind the scenes to release historical data. After a long battle with them, and in the midst of our fight, they finally relented. And so, at least for the last 14 elections or so, division by division results are available on the web.

As the article notes, she has posted the raw data for all to download, for free. But, it did cost her some money ($195 total). So, if you believe in the kind of work she did, chip in a couple bucks (there is a donation link on her page) and help defray the cost.

Great work, Stephanie!