Swiss Election Study (Selects) 2023

For voter surveys (PES and Panel): Swiss citizens aged 18 years and above For candidate surveys: all candidates running for the National Council and/or the Council of States

PES: stratified by canton, e.g. individuals were randomly selected within the 26 cantons. A basic sample of around 2600 individuals was calculated for each canton to minimize variance regarding participation and party choice. In the least populous cantons, the samples were increased to ensure that at least 50 individuals could be surveyed. An oversample was taken for the cantons of Ticino and Geneva. Panel: stratified by big region (NUTS 2), e.g. individuals were randomly selected within the seven major regions (Lake Geneva Region, Espace Mittelland, North-West Switzerland, Zurich region, Eastern Switzerland, Central Switzerland, Ticino). The samples were drawn from the SRPH by the Federal Statistics Office.

In the PES, we used an unconditional cash incentive (10 CHF) that was sent to sample members together with the invitation letter. Panel: in wave 1, respondents participated in a lottery (5x300 CHF); in waves 2 and 3, respondents received a conditional cash incentive (10 CHF) after completion of the survey; in wave 4, respondents participated again in a lottery (5x300 CHF).

116 daily and weekly newspapers (print and online) were semi-automatically content-analyzed in the period from 1 May 2023 to 31 October 2023.

Newspapers were mainly accessed on Swissdox@Liri. Only articles dealing with Swiss politics were selected.

The issues of the newspaper articles were coded based on the same categories as the most important problems perceived by voters in the PES and the Panel, as well as by candidates included in the Candidate Survey.