The ADA Political File contains a variety of materials relevant to ADA's political activities. These include correspondence, articles, speeches, newspaper and magazine clippings, questionnaires, pamphlets and reprints, political analyses of candidates and events, and printed and mimeographed information on national presidential campaigns as well as Congressional elections.

The files are organized chronologically by election years. The material under each election year is then divided between those that deal with the election generally and those that concern the respective Democratic and Republican national presidential conventions. There is often no clear distinction among these three types of materials; hence, in many cases the filing is arbitrary. There is some correspondence in almost every folder. This series is most complete for the presidential election years of 1948, 1952, 1956, and 1960, although the off-year elections do receive some attention. The political correspondence relating to the 1948 election is broken down by states, but only for this year.

There is correspondence, and numerous printed and mimeographed materials which do not directly relate either to the presidential elections or to the national conventions, but which deal with tangential affairs in the political arena. This material has been filed within the election year to which it is most relevant. At the end of the series is a file which does not fit chronoloically labeled as "Smers on the ADA."