DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03072
title: ABC News/Washington Post Labor Day Poll, September 2000
title: Archival Version

description: This poll, fielded September 4-6, 2000, is part of a
 continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public opinion on
 the presidency and on a range of other political and social issues.
 Respondents were asked whether they intended to vote in the November
 7, 2000, presidential election and for whom they would vote if the
 election were held that day, given a choice between Vice President Al
 Gore and Connecticut senator Joseph Lieberman (Democratic Party),
 Texas governor George W. Bush and former Secretary of Defense Dick
 Cheney (Republican Party), conservative commentator Pat Buchanan and
 educator Ezola Foster (Reform Party), and consumer advocate Ralph
 Nader and activist Winona LaDuke (Green Party). Respondents were asked
 to assess the importance of the following issues in their electoral
 decision-making and to specify which candidate they most trusted to do
 a better job addressing them: holding taxes down, protecting the
 Social Security system, improving education, improving the health care
 system, handling the economy, handling gun control, handling foreign
 affairs, encouraging high moral standards and values, reforming
 election campaign finance laws, handling abortion, managing the
 federal budget, handling the issue of prescription drug benefits for
 the elderly, handling national defense and the military budget,
 helping the middle class, handling crime, protecting the environment,
 and reducing political partisanship in Washington. Views were sought
 on whether presidential debates should be held and which candidates
 should be invited to participate. Respondents were also asked which
 candidate understood the problems of the American people, was a strong
 leader, would bring needed change to Washington, had the knowledge of
 world affairs it takes to serve effectively as president, could keep
 the economy strong, would say or do anything to get elected, had new
 ideas, was honest and trustworthy, would be a good commander-
 in-chief, had high personal, moral, and ethical standards, would unite
 people, had taken a clear stand on the issues, cared about the less
 fortunate, had an appealing personality, and had the right kind of
 experience to be president. Respondents' opinions were sought on
 whether the top priority for the federal budget surplus should be
 cutting federal taxes, reducing the national debt, strengthening
 Social Security, or increasing spending on domestic programs. Support
 for the following proposals was assessed: a large tax cut across the
 board or smaller tax cuts for the lower and middle class, a plan that
 would allow people to invest some of their Social Security earnings in
 the stock market, and a federal plan that would give parents money to
 send their children to private or religious schools instead of local
 public schools that were not meeting state standards. Additional
 topics covered abortion, the status of United States military strength
 over the past eight years, whether presidential candidates should
 discuss their religious beliefs, voter intentions in terms of the 2000
 Congressional elections, whether the candidates were conducting
 positive or negative campaigns, and whether the country needed a fresh
 start after the Clinton era. Background information on respondents
 includes age, gender, political party, political orientation, voter
 registration and participation history, education, religion, labor
 union membership, Hispanic origin, household income, marital status,
 children in household, neighborhood characteristics, number of hours
 per day spent watching television, and whether the respondent
considered himself/herself a morning person.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: ABC News/Washington Post Labor Day Poll, September 2000
description: (1) The data are provided as an SPSS portable file.
 (2) This collection has not been processed by ICPSR staff. ICPSR is
 distributing the data and documentation for this collection in
 essentially the same form in which they were received. When
 appropriate, documentation has been converted to Portable Document
 Format (PDF), data files have been converted to non-platform-specific
 formats, and variables have been recoded to ensure respondents'
 anonymity. (3) The codebook is provided by ICPSR as a Portable
 Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe
 Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software,
 such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy
of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.