Congress Forever Scenarios

[Patine 469]

Here's the rundown on possible scenarios for this engine. First, there have been democratic Senate elections every two years since 1914, giving us 48 possible scenarios, including 2012, that are easily calculacable. House elections, on the other hand, have always been more or less democratic (though female and Black suffrage, property requirements, residency requirements, and voting age vary by state and era in the past), meaning that, at every two years since 1789 there have been twice as many House elections as Presidential elections with a margin of error of one election for mid-terms, at any given time. Of course, a fair number of these elections were uninteresting or non-competitive. As for state legislatures, with every state throughout their own histories, and two chambers each (except Nebraska, which, for a long while had one chamber), as well as territorial, colonial, and revolutionary legislative bodies before statehood, if one wishes, there's easily several thousand elections there, though MANY of them would be uninteresting or non-competitive. One could also stretch it to include US territories and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico's legislatures. As well, the engine can, with a few adjustments, probably handle Brazil, Spanish America, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Liberia's Congresses, at least during democratic periods, as these nations governments are closely based on the US model. Any thoughts or further ideas?