Survey of electoral participation
Turnout in elections is an indicator of the involvement of citizens in institutions and major public debates.
By monitoring the behaviour of the people registered on the electoral lists between two rounds of the same vote and between different successive votes, the surveys of electoral participation are used to analyse this involvement in more in-depth fashion than the analysis of the instant turnout rate trends published by the Interior Ministry.
These surveys are not only used to study participation according to different socio-demographic criteria, but also to observe voting intermittence, by distinguishing between systematic voters, systematic abstainers and more or less intermittent electors. Since 2017, the implication in proxy voting is also studied.
Initially conducted on a national basis, these operations are now based on samples of a sufficient size in order to enable regional analyses.
The first survey of electoral participation was conducted in 1983 on an exploratory basis during the municipal elections.
It was limited to the major municipalities of Metropolitan France (sample of less than 3,000 people).
In 1984, the survey was conducted over throughout Metropolitan France during the European elections (sample of approximately 7,000 people).
In 1998, the survey monitored several successive elections for the first time: the 1988 presidential and legislative elections, the 1989 referendum on New Caledonia and municipal elections. The panel included approximately 8,000 people. It was used to produce the first analyses on voting recurrence on a national level.
In 1995, a new panel was selected for the 1995 presidential election, the 1995 municipal elections and the 1997 legislative elections. It included nearly 39,000 people, which enabled regional analyses for the first time.
This framework was implemented again in 2002-2004 (for the 2002 presidential and legislative elections, the 2004 regional and European elections) and in 2007-2008 (for the 2007 presidential election and legislative elections, the 2008 municipal elections). The survey has been extended to overseas departements (except mayotte) since 2012 and the survey follows the participation at two elections: the presidential election and the legislative elections, which take place during the same year. Since 2022, the survey has been extended to Mayotte and thus covers all overseas departements. This survey now includes information on proxy voting from the Single Electoral Register (REU).
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Survey
Punctual or aperiodic