The Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) is a data infrastructure project involving the collaboration of research teams from over 60 academic institutions. Collectively these research teams have fielded national surveys of 35,000 adults in 2006, 37,000 in 2008, and, with partial funding from NSF, 54,000 in 2010. In addition the project has produced a 10,000-person survey panel in 2006 and 2007, a 2,000-person panel in 2006, 2007, and 2008, and a Hispanic sample in 2010. The core of this award is to guarantee a minimum survey of 20,000.

Each research team that wishes to be involved in the project purchases a 1,000 person sample survey. Each individual team determines half of the questions on its survey while the other half of the content is created by a design committee, drawn from the participating teams (called Common Content). With 35 teams, as in 2006, there are 35 individual team surveys each with a sample of 1,000 and a single common survey of 35,000 cases. Researchers have used their team modules to conduct survey research on themes and questions for which appropriate public use data are not available. Since 2006, the CCES has produced studies that have appeared in over 60 journal articles and dozens of books. This includes over a dozen articles that have appeared in the top three journals in the discipline. The National Science Foundation support will pay for the Common Content part of the survey, and will facilitate participation from a large number of institutions that otherwise could not afford to participate.

By providing survey data for so many scholars at so many institutions, the survey helps to create and sustain a network of researchers interested in a wide variety of public opinion topics. Over 60 institutions have participated in the project so far, and each team involves multiple faculty members and research assistants. Those who participate in this project build research skills, especially in the area of questionnaire design, and generate further research ideas that can be pursued through this or other vehicles. The CCES also has a central educational mission. The current grant will allow for further development and distribution of instructional materials relating to the survey that may be adopted widely as part of graduate curricula. In addition, several university teams have used this platform to support PhD dissertation and post-doctoral research.

Project Report

The 2012 Cooperative Congressional Election Survey (CCES) embodies power in numbers. This survey project brought together 47 different university and college research teams to plan and conduct surveys jointly during the 2012 general election. Each Team purchased a module consisting of a nationally-representative survey of 1,000 to 2,000 respondents, and each team designed half of the questions on their individual team module. The other half of the questions were the same (or common) across all of the modules. The responses to all of the common questions were then pooled into a Common Content survey of 54,535 individuals nationwide. By coordinating the content and design of the surveys, the project, then, was able to produce 47 different Team surveys as well as a very large sample Commong Content survey. In just a year and a half since the release of the CCES Common Content and Team survey date, the data have already yielded 9 books, over 50 published journal articles, hundreds of conference papers and working papers, and countless graduate and undergraduate theses. The data and the Guide to the 2012 CCES are made publicly availble, free of charge, through the Harvard IQSS Dataverse: http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/cces/data. There have already been 2,150 downloads of the 2012 Common Content CCES database, and that corresponds to users other than those at the individual research teams, who are provided the data directly upon completion of the surveys. The 2012 CCES is used to address a wide range of questions. The survey was designed to gauge how party, issues, demographic characteristics of people, and other factors explain vote choice and support for the institutions of American government, especially the United States Congress. The 2012 CCES is uniquely important as it covers the first U. S. House elections following redistricting. Research using the CCES has shown, for example, that voters in areas drawn into new congressional districts are much less knowledgeable about the congressional candidates, less likely to vote in the House election, and express less support for incumbent House members. Individual research teams examine a wide range of questions, from public attitudes about international conflicts to municipal elections, from religiosity to the nuts and bolts of election administration, from voluntarism to attitudes about taxes, from pocket book voting to personality and participation. Research from this project has informed policy-makers at all levels of government, especially in the area of election administration. The Presidential Commission on Election Administration and the Election Administration Commission, as well as many local and state election officials, rely on studies of waiting times, difficulties voting, and reasons for not voting that draw on the 2012 CCES. Research from this project is often featured by blogs such as the Monkeycage and Politico, as well as in more traditional media, especially on CBS News, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
1225750
Program Officer
Brian Humes
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2012-09-01
Budget End
2014-08-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
$499,229
Indirect Cost
Name
Harvard University
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Cambridge
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02138