This study is part of the American National Election Studies (ANES), a time series collection of national surveys fielded since 1948. The American National Election Studies are designed to present data on Americans' social backgrounds, political predispositions, social and political values, perceptions and evaluations of groups and candidates, opinions on questions of public policy, and participation in political life. The files included in this study are restricted-use due to the geocodes contained in them for the year listed in the title. Please review the contents of the ZIP file pkg38176-0001_documentation_REST.zip for helpful information about the meanings of variables and changes to geocoding over time. Should you need to merge datasets across the 1992-1997 or 2000-2004 panel, ID bridging files for those panels are also included in the same ZIP file.

This study is part of the American National Election Study (ANES), a time-series collection of national surveys fielded continuously since 1948. The American National Election Studies are designed to present data on Americans' social backgrounds, enduring political predispositions, social and political values, perceptions and evaluations of groups and candidates, opinions on questions of public policy, and participation in political life. As with all Time Series studies conducted during years of presidential elections, respondents were interviewed during the two months preceding the November election (Pre-election interview), and then re-interviewed during the two months following the election (Post-election interview). Like its predecessors, the 2020 ANES was divided between questions necessary for tracking long-term trends and questions necessary to understand the particular political moment of 2020. The study maintains and extends the ANES time-series 'core' by collecting data on Americans' basic political beliefs, allegiances, and behaviors, which are so critical to a general understanding of politics that they are monitored at every election, no matter the nature of the specific campaign or the broader setting. This 2020 ANES study features a fresh cross-sectional sample, with respondents randomly assigned to one of three sequential mode groups: web only, mixed web (i.e., web and phone), and mixed video (i.e., video, web, and phone). The new content for the 2020 pre-election survey includes coronavirus pandemic, election integrity, corruption, impeachment, immigration and democratic norms. The pre-election survey also includes protests and unrest over policing and racism. The new content for the 2020 post-election survey includes voting experiences, anti-elitism, faith in experts or science, climate change, gun control, opioids, rural-urban identity, international trade, transgender military service, social media usage, misinformation, perceptions of foreign countries and group empathy. Phone and video interviews were conducted by trained interviewers using computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) software on computers. Unlike in earlier years, the 2020 ANES did not use computer-assisted self interviewing (CASI) during any part of the interviewer-administered modes (video and phone). Rather, in interviewer-administered modes, all questions were read out loud to respondents, and respondents also provided their answers orally. Demographic variables include respondent age, education level, political affiliation, race/ethnicity, marital status, and family composition.