2007-2008 AP-Yahoo News Election Panel Study

Overview

The year long longitudinal design allowed AP and Yahoo to report on the political pulse of the nation and measure opinion change leading up to the primary elections through the Presidential election in November 2008. The wave 1 survey (baseline) was fielded on November 2nd, 2007 to a nationally representative sample of 3,548 Knowledge Networks panel members age eighteen years of age or older. The interview completion goal for the study was to collect approximately 2,000 completes at the final wave of the study. The survey interview length for each wave was roughly 25 minutes, except wave 10 (Election Day) which was approximately five minutes.

The surveys were conducted using the web-enabled KnowledgePanel®, a probability-based Panel designed to be representative of the U.S. population. Initially, participants are chosen scientifically by a random selection of telephone numbers and residential addresses. Persons in selected households are then invited by telephone or by mail to participate in the web-enabled KnowledgePanel®. For those who agree to participate, but do not already have Internet access, Knowledge Networks provides at no cost an Internet appliance and Internet service connection. People who already have computers and Internet service are permitted to participate using their own equipment. Panelists then receive unique log-in information for accessing surveys online, and then are sent emails three to four times a month inviting them to participate in research. More technical information is available at http://www.knowledgenetworks.com/ganp/reviewer-info.html.