Electoral Campaign Survey

About the ICENES Electoral Campaign Survey

A survey among voters during the election campaign was first fielded in 2016 and has been repeated every election since then.

Data from the election campaign survey will be available in open access on the DATICE (is. GAGNÍS) website.

Methodology

The survey uses a rolling cross-sectional design.  This entails drawing a large random sample approximately one month prior to each election and randomly dividing the sample into a number of subsamples with the number depending on the days the survey is supposed to cover. To take an example of a survey that is supposed to run for 28 days prior to the election, the sample is divided randomly into 28 subsamples. The first group receives the survey 28 days before the election, the next 27 days before the election and so on. A rolling cross-sectional design makes it possible to detect changes in the support of political parties and the attitudes day by day in a more reliable manner than if a survey is sent out for example with weekly intervals or a survey is sent to the same participants before and after the election.

The campaign survey is sent by email to a sample taken from the panel of the Social Science Research Institute.

The questionnaire has mainly been divided into questions about the probability of voting, the probability of voting for a party, and the main issues of the election campaign.

After the election, a follow-up survey is sent out to all respondents, asking for example whether the respondent voted and if yes what party they voted for.