DOI: 10.14749/1538033821
title: South African Election Satisfaction Survey (ESS) 2011: Voters - All provinces

description: Description: 
 Topics covered in the questionnaire are: distance to the voting station, queuing time for voters, accessible to persons with disabilities and the elderly, signage and instructions at voting stations, voting procedures inside the voting station, trust in the electoral commission, evaluations of electoral officials, voting procedure for voters with special needs, effectiveness of the electoral commission's voter education campaign, usefulness of information sources, disturbances at voting stations, electoral freeness and fairness.

 The data set for dissemination contains 62 variables and 14 516 cases from the expected 15 000 which represented 95% response rate.

 In terms of the number of voting stations, a 100% realisation rate was achieved. All 300 selected voting stations were therefore visited on Election Day.
Abstract: 
 The objective of the 2011 Election Satisfaction Survey (ESS) was to determine opinions and perceptions of voters on Election Day. The main intention of the survey was to determine if elections were free and fair. A further aim of the study was to assess the operational efficiency of the Electoral Commission in managing the 2011 municipal elections.

 Three hundred voting stations throughout South Africa were selected using complex sample design. Around 50 randomly selected voters were interviewed at each of the 300 voting stations. The prime target population was therefore individuals aged 18+ who reside in South Africa and who were registered to vote in the 2011 Municipal Elections-and voted. As voters exited these voting stations they were interviewed. The study method comprised a brief (5-minute) face-to-face interview. The Electoral Commission was keen to release the survey results together with the official election results (which took place 3 days after the election).

 The HSRC together with the IEC developed the voter questionnaire. Questions included the distance travelled to the voting station, means of transport utilised, time spent in the voting queue, perception of IEC officials' competence, and perception of the freeness and fairness of the election.
description: Face-to-face interview
description: The study was conducted among South Africans who voted in the 2011 Municipal Elections. The target population for the voter component of the study was individuals aged 18 years and older who were registered to vote in the 2011 Elections.
description: A complex sample design was used in drawing the sample of voting stations. The design included stratification and a multi-stage sampling procedure. The database of voting stations obtained from the IEC was merged with that of Population Census Enumeration Areas (EAs). The sampling of the voting station was done proportionally to the dominant race type, geo-type and the number of voting stations in a given province. This was to ensure that a Municipally representative sample of voting stations was selected and the results of the survey could be properly weighted to the population of legible voters in the country. At the actual voting stations, fieldworkers used random sampling to select voters to ensure a fair representation in terms of gender, race, age, and disability status.

 In the cases of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, the numbers of voting stations were sampled below proportion given that almost half of the South African registered voters are based in these provinces. Conversely, the number of voting stations in the Northern Cape was over-sampled in order to generate sufficient interviews in that province to facilitate meaningful analysis. Table 1 provides the distribution of voting stations per province and the number of voters interviewed.

 At each voting station, the interviewer was instructed to interview 50 voters during the course of the day. Interviews were divided into four time slots: 07:00 - 10:30; 10:31 - 14:00; 14:01 - 17:30 and the remainder between 17:31 and closing time (21:00). This was done to ensure a spread of interviews throughout Election Day, since it was imagined that different dynamics might be at play depending on the time of day.

 
 
 
 Province
 
 Voting Stations Sampled
 
 Expected sample
 
 
 
 Western Cape
 
 32
 
 1600
 
 
 
 Eastern Cape
 
 40
 
 2000
 
 
 
 Northern Cape
 
 14
 
 700
 
 
 
 Free State
 
 21
 
 1050
 
 
 
 KwaZulu-Natal
 
 53
 
 2650
 
 
 
 North West
 
 28
 
 1400
 
 
 
 Gauteng
 
 55
 
 2750
 
 
 
 Mpumalanga
 
 27
 
 1350
 
 
 
 Limpopo
 
 30
 
 1500
 
 
 
 Total
 
 300
 
 15000