Voter overrepresentation, vote misreporting, and turnout bias in postelection surveys

Selb, Peter; Munzert, Simon

Voter overrepresentation, vote misreporting, and turnout bias in postelection surveys

Files

Selb_247564.pdf(402.46 KB)

Date

2013

Publication type

Journal article

Published in

Electoral Studies ; 32 (2013), 1. - pp. 186-196. - ISSN 0261-3794

Abstract

Figures from postelection surveys often grossly overestimate election turnout. Two distinct phenomena are responsible for this gap: overrepresentation of actual voters and vote misreporting by actual nonvoters among survey respondents. Previous accounts of turnout bias are inconclusive in that they either focus on a single component, or fail to separate between the two. In this paper, we formally decompose turnout bias in election surveys into its constituent parts, assess their empirical prevalence and heterogeneity using an extensive collection of 49 vote validation studies from six countries, and employ Bayesian meta regression techniques to account for cross-study differences. Our results indicate that both election and survey characteristics such as actual voter turnout and survey response rates differentially affect the components of turnout bias. We conclude with a discussion of the threats and potentials of our findings for survey-based comparative electoral research.

Subject (DDC)

320 Politics

Keywords

Election surveys,vote overreporting,nonresponse bias,misclassification bias,vote validation studies,meta analysis

Cite This

ISO 690

SELB, Peter, Simon MUNZERT, 2013. Voter overrepresentation, vote misreporting, and turnout bias in postelection surveys. In: Electoral Studies. 32(1), pp. 186-196. ISSN 0261-3794. Available under: doi: 10.1016/j.electstud.2012.11.004

BibTex

@article{Selb2013Voter-24756,
  year={2013},
  doi={10.1016/j.electstud.2012.11.004},
  title={Voter overrepresentation, vote misreporting, and turnout bias in postelection surveys},
  number={1},
  volume={32},
  issn={0261-3794},
  journal={Electoral Studies},
  pages={186--196},
  author={Selb, Peter and Munzert, Simon}
}

RDF

<rdf:RDF
    xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"
    xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
    xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
    xmlns:bibo="http://purl.org/ontology/bibo/"
    xmlns:dspace="http://digital-repositories.org/ontologies/dspace/0.1.0#"
    xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"
    xmlns:void="http://rdfs.org/ns/void#"
    xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#" > 
  <rdf:Description rdf:about="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/24756">
    <dcterms:hasPart rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/123456789/24756/2/Selb_247564.pdf"/>
    <dcterms:rights rdf:resource="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/"/>
    <dspace:hasBitstream rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/123456789/24756/2/Selb_247564.pdf"/>
    <dcterms:issued>2013</dcterms:issued>
    <dcterms:bibliographicCitation>Electoral Studies ; 32 (2013), 1. - S. 186-196</dcterms:bibliographicCitation>
    <dc:rights>terms-of-use</dc:rights>
    <bibo:uri rdf:resource="http://kops.uni-konstanz.de/handle/123456789/24756"/>
    <dcterms:title>Voter overrepresentation, vote misreporting, and turnout bias in postelection surveys</dcterms:title>
    <foaf:homepage rdf:resource="http://localhost:8080/"/>
    <dc:contributor>Munzert, Simon</dc:contributor>
    <dc:creator>Munzert, Simon</dc:creator>
    <dc:contributor>Selb, Peter</dc:contributor>
    <dc:date rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime">2013-10-08T11:09:18Z</dc:date>
    <dc:language>eng</dc:language>
    <dcterms:isPartOf rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/42"/>
    <dcterms:available rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime">2013-10-08T11:09:18Z</dcterms:available>
    <dcterms:abstract xml:lang="eng">Figures from postelection surveys often grossly overestimate election turnout. Two distinct phenomena are responsible for this gap: overrepresentation of actual voters and vote misreporting by actual nonvoters among survey respondents. Previous accounts of turnout bias are inconclusive in that they either focus on a single component, or fail to separate between the two. In this paper, we formally decompose turnout bias in election surveys into its constituent parts, assess their empirical prevalence and heterogeneity using an extensive collection of 49 vote validation studies from six countries, and employ Bayesian meta regression techniques to account for cross-study differences. Our results indicate that both election and survey characteristics such as actual voter turnout and survey response rates differentially affect the components of turnout bias. We conclude with a discussion of the threats and potentials of our findings for survey-based comparative electoral research.</dcterms:abstract>
    <dspace:isPartOfCollection rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/42"/>
    <dc:creator>Selb, Peter</dc:creator>
    <void:sparqlEndpoint rdf:resource="http://localhost/fuseki/dspace/sparql"/>
  </rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>

Bibliography of Konstanz

Yes