I have just learned that Michael J. Dubin died on June 5, 2016, at the age of 77. Dubin was the nation’s leading compiler of election return books for the difficult-to-find early years of the United States. He authored United States Congressional Elections 1788-1997, the only book ever published that lists all candidates for Congress who were on the ballot in any congressional election. The book includes their vote, their party, and their percentage of the vote cast.

He authored Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures 1796-2006, a unique reference that shows partisan line-ups in each state’s legislative chamber going back almost to the first year of statehood for each state.

He authored U.S. Presidential Elections 1788-1860, the only reference book that has the popular vote totals in each state, and by county, for the period before 1824. He wrote four volumes of election returns for Governor, with the vote by county. Here is the Amazon author’s page giving details about each of his books.

What is most amazing is that he did his research without any institutional help. One would have thought that teams of university-connected individuals would have collected this type of data and published it, but no such team of academics ever did so. He did it on his own.