1964 Time Series Study

About the Dataset

• Time Series Study
• Includes: vote validation
• Completions: 1,834 pre-election; 1,684 post-election
• Sample: fresh cross-section and separate supplement
• Special Cases: black supplement
• Modes used: face-to-face
• Weights: V640466

Study Content Highlights

In addition to content on electoral participation, voting behavior, and public opinion, the 1964 ANES contains questions in other areas such as political knowledge and government responsiveness. Some emphasis is placed on racial issues, including new questions on open housing and segregation. Other topical and special-interest content includes the first time series question on Vietnam, and new questions on school prayer, the Supreme Court, the authority of the bible, the power of the federal government, and the first use of ‘feeling thermometers’ in the time series, for various social groups.

Study Design Highlights

The 1,834 total interviews in the 1964 ANES include not only a traditional time series national cross-section, but also a supplement of 263 eligible black voters. The black supplement alone is not usable as a valid sample, but is intended for use together with the cross-section to create a combined sample, or with black respondents from the cross-section to produce a larger all-black sample.

The 1964 ANES was the first study in the time series to employ randomly-assigned versions, or ‘forms’, of the questionnaire, which differed only in the administration of two experiments. In a question-order experiment, Form 1 and Form 2 respondents were asked the major-party ‘likes-dislikes’ questions in alternative party order. In a question wording experiment, respondents were asked to recall the party of their vote in the previous presidential election either by party, without name cues, or by candidate, with names read by the interviewer. Another design feature was the use of follow-ups for issue self-placements, in which respondents rated the sureness of their position.

Beginning September 7, interviews using the 83-minute pre-election instrument were conducted prior to Election Day, November 3. The 49-minute post-election interview was administered from November 6, 1964 through February, 1965. For the cross-section, 1,948 eligible cases yielded 1,571 pre-election completions and 1,421 post-election re-interview.

Weights Summary

V640277 is an integer weight which compensates for the oversample of blacks in the combined sample. The 1970 cross-section and all-black samples are unweighted. The sample selection filter is V640003.