Abstract
This article deals with specific measures to enhance response rates in the Dutch Parliamentary Election Study (DPES) conducted around the elections on November 22, 2006. It demonstrates that a specific fieldwork strategy, including new advance letters, incentives, interviewer training sessions, and a reapproach of noncontacts and refusals, resulted in a response rate of 72% (first wave) and 64% (second wave). Moreover, the distributions of party choice in the DPES fit perfectly with the official election results. However, the 93.1% reported turnout is substantially higher than the official 80.1% turnout figure. Five percent of the 13% gap in reported and official turnout in the DPES is assigned to stimulus effects and the remaining 8% to a mixture of nonresponse bias and social desirability effects.
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