Author Description

This is the seventeenth in a series of studies of American national elections produced by the Political Behavior Program of the Survey Research Center (SRC) and the Center for Political Studies (CPS), and the third study to be conducted under the auspices of a National Science Foundation grant providing long-term support for the National Election Studies. The 1982 Election Study has two components: 1) a traditional post-election survey using in-person interviews with a national sample of 1,418 respondents located in the 74 primary areas of the county-based SRC sampling frame, and 2) an experimental post-election survey using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) with a national sample of 1,000 respondents selected by a random-digit dialing procedure. The post-election survey contains only the personal interview data. An integrated file containing both personal and telephone data will be available at a later date. Telephone respondents were administered a somewhat abbreviated version of the in-person interview schedules, adapted for use over the telephone where appropriate. The focus of the survey was the congressional elections which had just been held. Respondents were asked about their involvement and interest in the campaign, whether and how they voted, the nature and extent of their contact with their United States Representative, and about their knowledge of issue positions held by candidates for Congress.