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Political Behavior

01.03.2011 | Original Paper

Considering Mixed Mode Surveys for Questions in Political Behavior: Using the Internet and Mail to Get Quality Data at Reasonable Costs

verfasst von: Lonna Rae Atkeson, Alex N. Adams, Lisa A. Bryant, Luciana Zilberman, Kyle L. Saunders

Erschienen in: Political Behavior | Ausgabe 1/2011

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Abstract

Telephone surveys have been a principle means of learning about the attitudes and behaviors of citizens and voters. The single mode telephone survey, however, is increasingly threatened by rising costs, the declining use of landline telephones, and declining participation rates. One solution to these problems has been the introduction of mixed-mode surveys. However, such designs are relatively new and questions about their representativeness and the intricacies of the methodology remain. We report on the representativeness of a post election mixed-mode (Internet and mail) survey design of 2006 general election voters. We compare sample respondent means to sample frame means on key demographic characteristics and examine how mail and Internet respondents differed in terms of attitudes, behaviors and demographics. We find that overall the Internet respondents were representative of the population and that respondent choice of mode did not influence item response. We conclude that mixed-mode designs may allow researchers to ask important questions about political behavior from their desktops.

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Fußnoten
1
Examples such as the American National Election Studies (ANES) and the General Social Survey (GSS) to the contrary.
 
3
Also see: http://​web.​mit.​edu/​polisci/​portl/​cces/​sampledesign.​html for a description of Polimetrix’s sampling method.
 
5
We thank New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron and Colorado Secretary of State Gigi Dennis who provided us with the voter registration files for free.
 
6
A frequency report of the Election Administration Survey can be found at: www.​unm.​edu/​~atkeson.
 
7
We strongly recommend a FAQ because the phone calls about this issue stopped after we included it on the website.
 
8
Seventeen mail surveys were returned, all of them voters. In NM1 10% (n = 5) and in COCD1 about 5% (n = 3) of sample letters were returned, even though we had received no returned post cards from these addresses in previous contacts. Thus, lower mail delivery quality may be an important concern in terms of sample recruitment and in evaluating the quality of the sample. Therefore, when implementing this type of survey researchers should carefully monitor the returned mail and use first class mail to ensure return delivery.
 
9
Because of page constraints one question had to be moved elsewhere.
 
10
Many unreachable were inactive voters who are sent an official mailing from the County Clerk or the Secretary of State that is returned as undeliverable. This suggests that removing inactive registered voters from the population frame would be a prudent and cost effective research design measure in any future study iteration.
 
11
A partial survey is less than 50% of substantive questions completed with something other than don’t know or refused.
 
12
This is the minimum response rate (RR2) as defined by the AAPOR (AAPOR 2008).
 
13
The cooperation rate is the minimum cooperation rate (COOP2) by AAPOR (AAPOR 2008).
 
14
Our higher voter validation compared to the ANES may be due to the fact that the population frame is registered voters while the ANES population frame is citizens.
 
15
We note there may be some error in our matching. There is also likely some error in the voter registration files (Cassel 2004; Presser et al. 1990). For example, the official 2006 canvass for Bernalillo County reported 198,611 voters, but the voter record file we have indicated that only 194,582 voters cast ballots, a difference of 4,029 votes. We also know that when voters move their vote history follow them to their new voting location, but the voting location for those votes does not. Therefore, some errors are created in the way in which the file is administered. Voter files are not well characterized yet (but see McDonald 2007).
 
16
Because Colorado had very few Hispanic voters, we matched Hispanic surname with the New Mexico sample only (See Word and Perkins 1996).
 
17
Spanish language contact letters, postcards and survey were not included in our study. Theoretically this choice could hurt our response rate among Spanish-speaking sample members. In a 2008 phone study, we provided this option and 1.8% of sample respondents chose to take the survey in Spanish suggesting the problem is relatively small. In addition, 80% of Hispanics speak English at home or describe themselves as fluent in English in Bernalillo County (U.S. Census Bureau 2008). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, New Mexico Hispanics have the highest English fluency across the states. Thus, any impact is likely very small.
 
18
House campaign activities include: attending a rally, fundraising, canvassing, convincing others, writing a letter to a magazine/newspaper or Internet site, advertising (e.g. sign, bumper sticker, button), and contributing money. We also counted the number of ways respondents learned about the US House candidates in their district including: met him/her personally, attended a meeting or rally, contacted in-person by candidate, party or interest group, received an e-mail from candidate, party or interest groups, contacted by phone by candidate, party or interest group, visited candidate, party or interest group web site, or read online or local newspaper.
 
19
We substituted the income mean for system-missing codes because of the large number of missing data.
 
20
These include: No One Encouraged Respondent to Vote, Did Not Have to Show ID to Vote, Never Had a Problem with Voting and the Ideology of Democratic House Candidate, Trust in Government, Satisfaction with the 2006 Fall Election, and Political Discussion.
 
21
The quality of voter registration files varies by states and localities and this may influence the ability to adequately pursue this type of design.
 
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Metadaten
Titel
Considering Mixed Mode Surveys for Questions in Political Behavior: Using the Internet and Mail to Get Quality Data at Reasonable Costs
verfasst von
Lonna Rae Atkeson
Alex N. Adams
Lisa A. Bryant
Luciana Zilberman
Kyle L. Saunders
Publikationsdatum
01.03.2011
Verlag
Springer US
Erschienen in
Political Behavior / Ausgabe 1/2011
Print ISSN: 0190-9320
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-6687
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-010-9121-1

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