Election returns further serve as an index to population growth and shifts and for some periods the precinct lists provide a unique register of contemporary place-names. An area of increasing research and political interest is the candidates' and committees' campaign statements of receipts and expenditures. Campaign statements reflect many of the costs of political campaigns and make clear, to a degree, the sources of receipts. The complexity of the operations of a large campaign is often reflected in the number and variety of committees set up to handle campaign finances. The long-term trend of federal and state laws in this area is in the direction of ever more detailed reporting.
Ballot measures are valuable sources for study of prominent public issues at a particular time.
Important to an understanding of such issues are the ballot arguments prepared in support of or in opposition to the measures and filed as part of the official record. The research potentials of other records in the Elections Record Group are suggested by the descriptions that follow.