South African Election Satisfaction Survey (ESS) 2016: All provinces

Description:
Topics covered in the questionnaire are: the distance traveled 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.

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. The number of voters interviewed was 13,584 from the expected 15,000 which represented 90% response rate.

The data set for dissemination contains 80 variables and 13 584 cases
Abstract:
The objective of the 2016 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 2016 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 2016 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. Since 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 deemed electronic data collection as most appropriate for this project.

The HSRC together with the IEC developed the voter questionnaire. Questions included the distance traveled 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.