DOI: 10.3886/icpsr07660
title: CBS News/New York Times Election Surveys, 1976
title: Archival Version

description: CBS News and The New York Times were partners in a series
 of election surveys covering the 1976 United States presidential
 election campaign. The surveys were intended to provide another
 dimension to the political reporting of the two organizations. The
 surveys, using extensive coverage early in the primary campaign, were
 designed to monitor the public's changing perception of the
 candidates, the issues, and the candidates' positions vis-a-vis the
 issues. Parts 1-9 contain separate nationwide surveys conducted by
 telephone, with approximately 1,500 randomly selected adults. Five
 surveys were conducted monthly from February through June, and four
 more between early September and the general election -- one in
 September and one following each presidential debate. A final survey
 was conducted two days after the general election. Respondents were
 asked for their preferred presidential candidate, their ratings of the
 candidates' qualifications and positions, and their opinions on a
 variety of political issues. Part 10, the Election Day Survey,
 contains a national sample of voters who were interviewed at the
 polls. Respondents were asked to fill out a questionnaire that asked
 the name of the presidential candidate for whom they had just voted,
 and other questions about their political preferences. Part 11
 contains data for respondents who were first interviewed in Part 9,
 Debate Three Survey, and recontacted and reinterviewed for the
 Post-Election Survey. Data include respondents' voting history, their
 evaluation of the nominees' positions on various political issues, and
 their opinions on current political and social issues. Parts 12-26
 contain surveys conducted in 12 states on the day of the primary at
 the polling place, among a random sample of people who had just voted
 in either the Democratic or Republican presidential primary
 election. These surveys were conducted in the following primary
 states: California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts,
 Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and
 Wisconsin. There are separate files for the Democratic and Republican
 primaries in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and California, making a total
 of fifteen primary day "exit" surveys. Respondents were asked whom
 they voted for and why, the issues that were important in making their
 choice, and their voting history. Demographic information on
 respondents in all surveys may include sex, race, age, religion,
 education, occupation, and labor union affiliation. These files were
 processed by the Roper Center under a cooperative arrangement with
 ICPSR. Most of these data were collected by CBS News and The New York
 Times. The Election Day Survey was conducted solely by CBS News. Parts
1-11 were made available to the ICPSR by CBS News.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: February Survey
DS2: March Survey
DS3: April Survey
DS4: May Survey
DS5: June Survey
DS6: September Survey
DS7: Debate One Survey
DS8: Debate Two Survey (Registered Only)
DS9: Debate Three Survey (Registered Only)
DS10: The Election Day Survey
DS11: The Post-Election Survey (All)
DS12: New Hampshire Primary Survey
DS13: Massachusetts Primary Survey
DS14: Florida Primary Survey
DS15: Illinois Primary Survey
DS16: New York Primary
DS17: Wisconsin Primary Survey
DS18: Pennsylvania Primary Survey
DS19: Indiana Democratic Primary Survey
DS20: Indiana Republican Primary Survey
DS21: Michigan Democratic Primary Survey
DS22: Michigan Republican Primary Survey
DS23: California Democratic Primary Survey
DS24: California Republican Primary Survey
DS25: Ohio Democratic Primary Survey
DS26: Ohio Republican Primary Survey
DS27: Codebook Introduction
description: Parts 1-6: Persons in households with telephones in the
 coterminous United States. Parts 7-9 and 11: Registered voters with
 telephones in the coterminous United States. Parts 10 and 12-26:
Voters in the 1976 primary election.
description: (1) These files contain weights, which must be used in
 any data analysis. (2) There is no card image data for Part 3 and
 there is only card image data for Parts 11-19. Also, this collection
 does not contain data for Oregon as the machine-readable documentation
indicates.