This section constitutes a checklist that we used to guide the creation of a state's MCD Group-level dataset from beginning to end, from the loading of the raw datasets to the production of the merged political and demographic final datasets. It is a data preparation recipe as well as a record of what was done to produce the final MCD Grouplevel merged files. Some of the wording and advice obviously refer to the specifics of our ROAD team's situation, but these notes can be used with few changes as a model for how to extend or redo the data preparation. The steps we created and followed were necessarily complicated, but we hope the information provided here goes some way toward meeting the replication standard (See Gary King, ``Replication, Replication,'' PS: Political Science and Politics, with comments from nineteen authors and a response, Vol. XXVIII, No. 3 (September, 1995): 443-499.) Those who use our data will not normally need to read this section, except perhaps to track down possible outliers or errors.
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