The Quality of Survey Research on Electoral Preferences

The objective is to conduct a professional evaluation of electoral surveys in the Czech Republic. The project will assess all aspects of data quality and availability. We intend to create a review of all existing surveys and gather relevant materials. We also plan to make new data publicly available for secondary analyses. Moreover, we will analyse methodology of individual surveys and will construct a set of quality criteria and compare data quality across surveys. We also will assess the methods of election results forecasting. Therefore, we might be able to suggest modifications to current methodology. All outcomes of the project are going to be publicized to a wide auditorium of data users and producers through an internet information center. The purpose of the project is to offer information necessary for anyone to make active use of public opinion polls. A comparable information source is lacking in the Czech Republic at the moment.

Key words: electoral preferences, elections, election surveys, methods of survey research, public opinion polling, quality of survey data, polling and media, election campaign reporting, election forecast.