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Rvoterdistance

Calculates the geographic distance between voters in a voter file and multiple polling or vote-by-mail drop box locations using the Haversine (great-circle) formula. Core computation is implemented in C++ via Rcpp for speed.

Features

Nearest location: find the single closest polling place for each voter
k-nearest locations: find the k closest locations per voter
Distance threshold: find all locations within a specified radius (e.g., all drop boxes within 5 miles)
sf integration: pass sf POINT geometries directly with automatic CRS transformation to WGS-84
Progress reporting: optional progress output for large voter files
Units: results in meters, kilometers, and miles

Installation

# From GitHub:
remotes::install_github("lorenc5/Rvoterdistance")

Quick Start

library(Rvoterdistance)
data(meck_ev)

# Nearest early voting location for each voter
result <- nearest_location(voter_meck, early_meck,
  voter_coords = c("lat", "long"),
  location_coords = c("lat", "long"))
head(result)

# 3 nearest locations per voter
result_k3 <- nearest_location(voter_meck, early_meck,
  voter_coords = c("lat", "long"),
  location_coords = c("lat", "long"),
  k = 3)

# All locations within 5 miles
result_5mi <- nearest_location(voter_meck, early_meck,
  voter_coords = c("lat", "long"),
  location_coords = c("lat", "long"),
  max_dist = 5, units = "miles")

Main Functions

Function	Description
`nearest_location()`	Main entry point. Supports k-nearest, distance threshold, sf objects.
`dist_km()`	Minimum distance to nearest location in kilometers.
`dist_mile()`	Minimum distance to nearest location in miles.
`haversine()`	Single-pair great-circle distance with configurable units.

Using sf Objects

library(sf)
voters_sf <- st_as_sf(voter_meck, coords = c("long", "lat"), crs = 4326)
locs_sf   <- st_as_sf(early_meck, coords = c("long", "lat"), crs = 4326)

result <- nearest_location(voters_sf, locs_sf)

If the CRS is not WGS-84 (EPSG:4326), coordinates are automatically transformed.

Included Data

king_dbox / king_geo: King County, WA ballot drop box locations and voter sample
meck_ev (voter_meck / early_meck): Mecklenburg County, NC early voting locations and voter sample

Citation

Collingwood, Loren. 2026. Rvoterdistance: Voter Distance to Polling Locations. R package version 2.0.0. https://github.com/lorenc5/Rvoterdistance

License

GPL (>= 2)

These binaries (installable software) and packages are in development.
They may not be fully stable and should be used with caution. We make no claims about them.
Health stats visible at Monitor.