Title: Survey of voters and non-voters, 2002

Alternative title: Explaining the turnout decline in Canadian federal elections: a new survey of non-voters, 2002.

Principal investigator(s): Pammett, Jon H. and Lawrence LeDuc

Producer: Decima Research Inc.

Date of creation: 2003-09-29

Funding agency: Elections Canada

Collector: Decima Research Inc.

Depositor:

Distributor: Ottawa, Ont.: Elections Canada

Date of distribution: 2003-10-15

Access conditions/restrictions: unrestricted

Summary: Following declining voter turnouts throughout the 1990s, the voter turnout at the Canadian general election of 2000 (61 percent) was the lowest on record. It is in this context that Elections Canada developed a research project aimed at evaluating the opinions and attitudes of non-voters, and to provide additional insight into the reasons for non-voting at federal elections. The objective of this research is to assist in further defining and comprehending the phenomenon of non-voting.

As part of this project, Decima Research Inc. was commissioned to conduct a survey of Canadians who were eligible electors at the time of the 2000 Canadian general election, including equal proportions of voters and non-voters. The survey covered a variety of socio-demographic, attitudinal, and contextual factors, in order to explain the phenomenon of non-voting in Canadian federal elections.

Geographic coverage: Canada

Time period:

Date(s) of collection: 2002-04-04 to 2002-05-09

Universe: Canadian citizens aged 18 years or older at the time of the 2000 federal election.

Data type: microdata

Sample: The overall sampling strategy was to generate large and equal-sized samples of voters and nonvoters. In addition, over-sampling was required in less populous regions to allow statistically meaningful analysis of the results for those areas.

The sample was drawn using SurveySampler technology, which ensures that all residential listings in the target population have an equal opportunity to be selected for inclusion in the survey. Within the household, if more than one resident was an eligible elector at the time of the 2000 general election (at least 18 years of age and a Canadian citizen in November 2000), one participant was selected using the last birthday method, which provides an efficient means of ensuring the sample approximates the population according to gender and age level. Up to eight callbacks were used to reach selected respondents who may not have been available at the time of the call.

Mode of data collection: telephone interviews, using computer-assisted-telephone interviewing (CATI) technology

Citation:

Pammett, Jon H. and Lawrence LeDuc Survey of voters and non-voters, 2002 [computer file]. Ottawa, Ont.: Decima Research [producer]; Elections Canada [distributor], 2003-09-29
<http://sda.chass.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/sdapub/hsda?harcsda+nonvote03>

Notes: downloaded from Elections Canada

Related data:

Status: