DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02962.v1
title: Indianapolis-St. Louis Election Study, 1996-1997
title: Version 1

description: This study was conducted by the Indiana University Center for Survey Research in Bloomington, Indiana, and is primarily concerned with patterns of social communication and influence over the course of the 1996 United States presidential election campaign. Computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) for the study began in March of 1996 and ended in early January of 1997, with a follow-up wave of interviews in the fall of 1997. A total of 4,352 interviews were completed from two separate samples: a sample of main respondents drawn from lists of registered voters in the St. Louis and Indianapolis metropolitan areas (2,612), plus a one-stage "snowball" sample of these main respondents' discussion partners (1,740). Data collection occurred in four waves: The first wave was conducted between March 3 and July 14, 1996, the second wave between July 1 and November 4, 1996, the third wave between November 6, 1996, and January 12, 1997, and the fourth wave between October 17 and December 12, 1997. Respondents were asked for their opinions of President Bill Clinton, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, former Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, Reform Party founder Ross Perot, and publisher Steve Forbes were elicited. Other topics covered include respondents' perceptions of the quality of their personal lives and of the health of the national economy, exposure to newspaper and television news, preferences on how federal tax money should be spent, views on the country's most important problem, and opinions on trade barriers, the death penalty, United States aid for Latin America, equal rights for women, government aid for minorities, organized prayer in public schools, a woman's right to abortion, and reconciling the disparate goals of balancing the federal budget, cutting federal taxes, and maintaining government programs for the elderly and disadvantaged. Respondents were also asked to comment on their involvement in community groups and organizations and their contacts with political parties and campaigns during the 1996 election campaign, and to predict how named members of their social network ("discussants") would answer similar questions and how those discussants would be voting in 1996. The Discussant files contain the responses of these discussion partners, who were interviewed on the same topics. Background information on respondents includes age, sex, race, education, religion, employment status, home ownership, Hispanic descent, marital status, income, years of residence at present address, voter registration and participation history, political party, and political orientation. Part 25, Interviewer Data, consists of the ID number and gender of the interviewer for each case in the collection organized by respondent CASEID number.
description: Response Rates: The rate of response across all four waves was approximately 63 percent.
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: Wave 1, Main Respondent, Substantive 
 DS2: Wave 1, Main Respondent, Latent Timers 
 DS3: Wave 1, Main Respondent, Important Matters 
 DS4: Wave 1, Discussant, Substantive 
 DS5: Wave 1, Discussant, Latent Timers 
 DS6: Wave 1, Discussant, Important Matters 
 DS7: Wave 2, Main Respondent, Substantive 
 DS8: Wave 2, Main Respondent, Latent Timers 
 DS9: Wave 2, Main Respondent, Important Matters 
 DS10: Wave 2, Discussant, Substantive 
 DS11: Wave 2, Discussant, Latent Timers 
 DS12: Wave 2, Discussant, Important Matters 
 DS13: Wave 3, Main Respondent, Substantive 
 DS14: Wave 3, Main Respondent, Latent Timers 
 DS15: Wave 3, Main Respondent, Important Matters 
 DS16: Wave 3, Discussant, Substantive 
 DS17: Wave 3, Discussant, Latent Timers 
 DS18: Wave 3, Discussant, Important Matters 
 DS19: Wave 4, Main Respondent, Substantive 
 DS20: Wave 4, Main Respondent, Latent Timers 
 DS21: Wave 4, Main Respondent, Important Matters 
 DS22: Wave 4, Discussant, Substantive 
 DS23: Wave 4, Discussant, Latent Timers 
 DS24: Wave 4, Discussant, Important Matters 
 DS25: Interviewer Data 
 DS26: Wave 1, Main Respondent, Substantive -- Restricted Data 
 DS27: Wave 1, Discussant, Substantive -- Restricted Data 
 DS28: Wave 2, Main Respondent, Substantive -- Restricted Data 
 DS29: Wave 2, Discussant, Substantive -- Restricted Data 
 DS30: Wave 3, Main Respondent, Substantive -- Restricted Data 
 DS31: Wave 3, Discussant, Substantive -- Restricted Data 
 DS32: Wave 4, Main Respondent, Substantive -- Restricted Data 
 DS33: Wave 4, Discussant, Substantive -- Restricted Data
description: computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) 
(1) The data files in this collection do not contain value labels. Value labels can, however, be obtained from the codebooks which contain the actual questionnaires used in the interviews. (2) Previously unreleased Excel and text files containing respondent comments are now available in restricted form. Please see the RESTRICTIONS field for additional information.
description: Adult population of registered voters in St. Louis, Missouri and Indianapolis, Indiana
description: The sample of respondents was drawn from lists of registered voters in the St. Louis and Indianapolis metropolitan areas