Conducted after every General Election since 1964, the BES is a face-to-face survey of over 4,000 adults over 18 aiming to understand why people vote, and why they vote the way they do. Objectives of the BES include interpreting long-term trends in British voting behaviour, and explaining election outcomes and turnouts; it also strives to link election outcomes to issues relating to democracy in general. The survey now also comprises a pre-campaign sample of over 3,500, and an internet-based pre- and post-election 'rolling' campaign panel survey. All BES datasets from 1963-2001 can be accessed via the data archive link below:
http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/findingdata/bestitles.asp
For more information on the methodology used visit the BES website:
http://www.essex.ac.uk/bes/2005/index2005.html
