Two questionnaire forms were used; about 3/4 of the items on each form are in common.

In addition to core items, new content includes questions on values, political knowledge, attitudes on racial policy as well as more general predisposition to racial attitudes. Form A content was related to presidential evaluation; Form B content was related to racial attitudes. Vote validation data are included.

STUDY CONTENT HIGHLIGHTS:
In addition to content on electoral participation, voting behavior, and public opinion, the 1986 ANES contains questions in other areas such as values and predispositions, and evaluation of parties. Special-interest and topical content includes new items on political knowledge, racial attitudes, racial policy, and the introduction of the battery on moral traditionalism.

STUDY DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS:
The 1986 ANES was conducted using 2 randomly-assigned versions or 'forms' of the questionnaire. To reduce overall interview length, approximately 25% of content was assigned to half-samples through the form assignments, with 75% of content identical between forms. Questions specific to form 'A' covered material relevant to Presidential evaluation, and questions unique to form 'B' were race-related. Among design features of the 1986 ANES was the coding of probes used by interviewers for a subset of specific questions.

Administration of the post-election interview began immediately after the November 4 elections, and continued until February 7, 1987. The average interview length was 74 minutes, and 2,176 completions were yielded from 3,645 eligible in the sample.

AUXILARY FILES DESCRIPTION:
The 1986 Nonresponse or 'Bias' file contains respondent-level field administration, sampling, and interviewer variables for the full 1986 sample.