Australian Candidate Study, 2016

The Australian Candidate Study surveys are conducted in parallel with the AES surveys of voters, and have been conducted at each federal election since 1987, with the exception of the 1998 election. All but the 1987 study have been funded by the Australian Research Council. The 2016 Australian Election Study had two components: the “Voters Survey” of Australian citizens eligible to vote in federal elections; and the “Candidates Survey” of 2016 Australian political candidates representing the four major political parties. Many of the questions in the 2016 Candidate Survey have also been asked of Voters, allowing aggregate comparisons to be made between the views of Candidates and Voters. Other sections cover the candidate's political background, the election campaign, experience of the candidate for political office and their personal background. For the first time, the 2016 Candidates Survey used a wholly online survey approach. Survey invitations and tailored reminders were sent via email and contained a unique survey link. In total, 591 candidates were selected and invited to participate in the survey. Of these, 182 (30.8%) went on to complete the survey (includes eligible partial completes).