This study is part of a time-series collection of national surveys fielded continuously since 1952. The election studies are designed to present data on Americans' social backgrounds, enduring political predispositions, social and political values, perceptions and evaluations of groups and candidates, opinions on questions of public policy, and participation in political life. The 1996 National Election Study contains both pre- and post-election components.
The Pre-Election Survey includes interviews in which approximately 77 percent of the cases are comprised of empaneled respondents first interviewed in either AMERICAN NATIONAL ELECTION STUDY, 1992: PRE- AND POST-ELECTION SURVEY [ENHANCED WITH 1990 AND 1991 DATA] (ICPSR 6067) or in AMERICAN NATIONAL ELECTION STUDY, 1994: POST-ELECTION SURVEY [ENHANCED WITH 1992 AND 1993 DATA] (ICPSR 6507). The other 23 percent of the pre-election cases are a freshly drawn cross-section sample. Of the 1,714 citizens who were interviewed during the pre-election stage, 1,534 (89.5 percent) also participated in the Post-Election Survey (1,197 of these were panel cases and 337 were cross-section).
This version of the 1996 data includes two new weights which incorporate a post-stratification adjustment for age and education groups. The new weight variables are v960005a and v960005b. See Appendix G for details.