Archive of Voting Records
The Voting Archive contains data from the Norwegian Parliament’s electronic voting system, starting in the 1979/80 session. It includes all non-unanimous votes in a continuous time series.
The data includes individual voting records, party codes, and case references.
About the Voting Archive
The archive includes only votes cast using the electronic system. Unanimous decisions and some proposals, often from smaller parties, were handled without formal voting and are therefore not included.
This can give the impression of more political agreement than actually existed.
The number of recorded votes increased significantly in the 1990s due to changes in voting procedures and more proposals. The budget reform introduced in 1997 led to fewer votes per session.
The variable id_vot links the voting tables together by uniquely identifying each vote. It is based on the Storting's internal numbering system but adapted to account for variations over the years. Additionally, id_vot is designed to be sorting-friendly, ensuring the correct chronological order of votes:
-
Sessions 124–154 (Autumn 1979 – Spring 2010):
Voting numbers restarted from 1 for each issue, and issues restarted from 1 for each case list—typically one per day. Only one issue was recorded per vote. id_vot was composed of date – agenda – case – vote number.
Example: 2007-05-10-077-01-003. -
Session 155 (Autumn 2010 – Spring 2011):
Each issue received a unique running number. id_vot was simplified to: date – issue – vote number.
Example: 2011-05-10-50324-001. -
From Session 156 (Autumn 2011) onward:
Each vote received its own unique running number. id_vot was further simplified to: date – vote number.
Example: 2016-05-10-07213.
Background
Data from 1979–1989 was manually registered by NSD using printouts and parliamentary records.
From 1989/90 onward, data is transferred directly from the Parliament's systems. NSD supplements this with case information and subject codes.
Except for the period 1981–1989, the data includes how each representative voted.
Data Quality
The data quality is generally high. Some votes, particularly from smaller parties, are missing because they were not registered through the electronic system.
This can affect analyses of party distance or agreement.
Use
Voting data is often used to measure political distance between parties.
This is done by comparing how often two parties vote the same, resulting in an agreement index ranging from 0% to 100%.
These results can be analyzed by session, topic, committee, or case type.
Examples
| Vote | Party A (%) | Party B (%) | Disagreement Index | Agreement Index |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100 | 100 | 0 | 100 |
| 2 | 0 | 100 | 100 | 0 |
| 3 | 100 | 0 | 100 | 0 |
| 4 | 60 | 40 | 20 | 80 |
Representative Level
These files show how each individual representative voted in each vote. They can be linked with biographical and case data.
Party Level
These files present aggregated voting results at the party level, showing the number and percentage of votes for or against proposals.
Sources
- Parliament's electronic voting system
- Stortingstidende (Parliamentary journal)
- Parliamentary Records, Part 9 (register volume)
Variable Description
Main table, which gives an overview of the votes. Note that a vote can span several issues, subjects and committees. These variables are therefore omitted from the main table and placed in separate tables. The identifier id_vot links them together.
Identifies the individual vote.
Date of the vote.
Hour, minute and second for the vote. Located in a separate variable since meetings in the Storting can extend until past midnight. The time for the vote will then technically be the next day, but is still registered on the date when the meeting started. If, for example, the date is 10 May and the time is 01:23, it means in reality that voting took off on 11 May since the date changed when the clock ticked past midnight. With date and time in the same variable, this link would be problematic.
This variable can essentially be ignored. Time is incorporated into the new variable tid, but in some cases in the 1980s it is impossible to understand what the time should be. It can be 3-4 digit numbers such as 553 or 3930. These are preserved as they are, with the hope that they will one day be understood.
Numbering of the period of time when the Storting sits together, currently from autumn to spring. Example: Session 166 indicates H2021-V2022.
Code indicating whether the vote took place in plenum or in a sub-parliament. See the table i_vot_sal for codes.
Number that refers to the agends. There is usually one agenda per day. The numbering starts at 1 for a new session.
Voting number, unique from the Storting's side from and including session 156 (H2011). Before that, the numbering started at 1 for each agenda.
What type of voting (the committee's proposal, private, alternative, etc.) is carried out. The i_vot_vottyp table contains codes, which are currently:
- 1 Voting on the setting's proposal
- 2 Voting on personal proposal
- 3 Alternative voting between the setting and personal proposal
- 4 Alternative voting between two personal proposals
- 9 Data missing (procedure, president, Lagting, Odelsting)
Who was president of the Storting during the session. See the table i_politikere for names and other personal data. See the table sto_representant for party.
Here we find what the individual representative has voted for in each voting. The base table was mainly id_vot_personvoteringer, but also t_storting_id_vot_personvoteringer and Vot_personvotering_124_155.
Identifies the individual voting.
Identifies the representative who has voted. See the table i_politikere for names and other personal data. See the table sto_representant for party. As the representative is unknown in some votes, only identified by seat number, party is also introduced here as a variable.
The representative's party at the vote. To ensure safe updating, the party should actually be found when looking up the table sto_representant, but often personal identification is missing in the old voting tables, especially session 155, and then the inherited variable parti is the closest we get.
Sets the voice. The table i_vot_votering contains codes, which are currently:
- 1 For
- 2 Against
- 3 Absent
Which subjects this voting applies to.
Identifies the individual voting.
Code for subject, index in table i_storting_emner.
Which standing committees this voting applies to.
Identifies the individual voting.
Code for committee, index in i_storting_komiteer.
Which subjects this voting applies to.
Identifies the individual voting.
Code for issue, unique number from autumn 2010 (session 155).
Issue type, index in table i_sakstype.
Reference to the issue in plain text.
Belonging to the issue, in plain text. Unknown origin, often the same as reference to issue, or a generalization.