SVT exit poll surveys

In Valu - Swedish exit poll surveys - voters leaving polling stations are asked by public service broadcaster Sveriges Television, SVT, to fill in a questionnaire and put it anonymously in a sealed box. After collecting and processing the responses, Sveriges Television is able to present an election forecast and an analysis of the reasons underlying the outcome of the election in it´s Election Night broadcast. The surveys are referred to as VALU, an abbreviation for vallokalundersökning, Swedish for exit poll survey. VALU has been carried out by the public service broadcaster SVT in connection with all national elections since 1991; parliamentary elections, referendums, and elections to the European Parliament. The first exit poll survey in Sweden was carried out by SVT in collaboration with Stockholm University and University of Gothenburg. Since 1994, SVT has carried out the studies in collaboration with University of Gothenburg and the Royal Institute of Technology, KTH, in Stockholm. SVT´s main aim with VALU is to obtain an analytical basis for SVT´s election night broadcast and for SVT´s and other professional analysts´ post-election analyses. Another aim is to be able to forecast the result of the election at an early stage during election night. VALU is carried out in geographical regions centred around the largest university cities. A university lecturer is appointed in each of the regions as regional survey leader. Together, these survey leaders are responsible for the field workers who carry out the survey where voting takes place before election day and outside polling stations during election day. All survey leaders are familiar with statistical methods.