Series II. Questionnaires, 1948-1950

The series contains the completed questionnaires used in the Elmira study (although it is not known if every single completed questionnaire remains in the collection). Four "waves" of questionnaires, following the so-called "panel method" of repeated interviews, are found in the series. Three of these waves date from before the 1948 election (June, August and October) and a fourth from just after the election in November. Two waves of questionnaires from 1950 (April and July) are also in the series, although the relation of these to the study is unclear as they are not mentioned in the published results.

The questionnaires, especially the three pre-election surveys, touched on an extensive array of matters, including the interviewee's attitude toward the various candidates in the primary and general campaigns, their intentions to vote one way or the other, the influences on their choices, and their views on key issues (notably Russia, labor and management relations, the growth of corporations and government regulation of industry, the Israeli-Arab conflict, and the United Nations). The questionnaires also include demographic information, including organizations that the interviewee associated with and the resulting political influences. In addition to the checked-off answers and brief notations on the questionnaires, there are also some longer form answers to interview questions. (Reproductions of the questionnaire forms can be found in an appendix in Bernard Berelson, et al.'s Voting.)

In order to link the questionnaires to particular respondents and to each other, each questionnaire was given a unique code that was formed by reference to the wave, segment, and household interviewed. For example, the questionnaire numbered as 001-145-004 indicates that it was the first wave questionnaire, implemented in the 145th segment of Elmira, given to the fourth household/interviewee from that segment. Questionnaire 002-145-004 would be the second wave given to the same household. (A map showing the segment numbers and location can be found in Series I, in the folders "Maps of Elmira.")