The non-declared vote in the surveys: The Spanish case in the 1980s

Abstract

Do individuals conceal their voting intentions? If so, why? In this article the author attempts to answer both these questions through a case study of declared voting intentions for the two main Spanish political parties in the 1980s. His analysis shows that the distribution of the hidden vote has not remained constant over time. Whereas in the early 1980s conservative voters were more likely not to disclose their vote, later in the decade a number of decisions taken by the Socialist government led some leftwing voters to hide their partisan preferences from pollsters.