Once relevant risk factors to electoral processes are identified (by
using the framework elaborated in Part II), the decision about the observable
indicators of the factors needs to be made. For example, for the factor ‘heated
party campaign’, indicators might be observed quantitatively, for instance in
the number of hate speeches, or in the quality of legislation that regulates
political party campaigning. Data might exist in a rough format, such as
official statistics and reports, or they might require collection. Sometimes
analysis will require that different data are combined. The transformation of
qualitative data into quantifiable categories will often improve handling and
presentation of data.
