Voter Files

A new analysis of 2020 validated voters examines change and continuity in the electorate, both of which contributed to Joe Biden’s victory. It looks at how new voters and voters who turned out in either 2016, 2018 or both voted in the 2020 presidential election, and offers a detailed portrait of the demographic composition of the 2020 electorate.

Data tables from interviews we conducted with verified voters after the 2016 and 2018 elections may help answer some election 2020 questions.

Polls can't predict the future. But they are the best tool to reveal the public’s priorities and values, and why people vote the way they do.

Our analysis of verified voters examines what 2016 voters and nonvoters did in the 2018 midterm elections and offers a detailed portrait of the demographic composition and vote choices of the 2018 electorate.

The real environment in which polls are conducted bears little resemblance to the idealized settings presented in textbooks.

On election night 2018, besides the exit polls there will be an additional source of data on who voted and why, developed by The Associated Press, Fox News and NORC at the University of Chicago and based on a very different methodology. That means that depending on where you go for election news, you may get a somewhat different portrait of this year's electorate.

A new telephone survey experiment finds that an opinion poll drawn from a commercial voter file produces results similar to those from a sample based on random-digit dialing.

In the wake of Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory, an overwhelming majority of those who said they had voted for him had “warm” feelings for him.

A new analysis demystifies voter files, the widely-used and comprehensive digital databases used to better understand the U.S. electorate.

Read a Q&A with Pew Research Center’s Ruth Igielnik and Scott Keeter about a recent study about voter files.