DOI: 10.3886/icpsr24594.v1
title: ABC News/Washington Post Poll #2, December 2007
title: Version 1

description: This poll, fielded December 16-19, 2007, is a part of continuing series of monthly polls that solicit public opinion on various political and social issues. A national sample of 1,142 adults was surveyed, including an oversample of 18-29 year olds, for a total of 274 respondents in this age group. Respondents were asked whether they approved of the way George W. Bush was handling the presidency and whether they thought the country was moving in the right direction. Several questions asked how closely respondents were following the 2008 presidential race, how likely they were to vote in the 2008
presidential primaries in their state, and for whom respondents would vote if the Democratic and Republican primaries and the general election were being held that day. A series of questions asked about respondents' use of the Internet, including whether they used the Internet for researching the 2008 presidential election, such as getting information about where to vote,
participating in online discussions, watching video clips, and visiting social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace to get information on political candidates. Many questions asked how much confidence and trust respondents had in traditional news media and the Internet for general information and specifically for information about the candidates in the presidential election, where they get most of their news about the election campaigns, whether they would approve of an Internet voting system if it was secure from fraud, and whether the Internet plays a positive role in the election campaigns. Respondents were also asked how much of a role their family and friends played in shaping their political opinions and whether they debate political issues with others in a face-to-face setting or online.
Additional topics included the Iraq war, abortion, the death penalty, illegal immigrants, civil unions, feelings about American politics, voting, the
United States government, whether respondents considered themselves feminists, and whether respondents have done volunteer work. Demographic information includes sex, age, race, education level, household income, employment status,
religious preference, frequency of religious attendance, marital status, whether respondents own or rent their home, type of residential area (e.g., urban or rural), voter registration status and participation history, political party affiliation, political philosophy, and the presence of children under 18 in the household.
description: The data contain a weight variable (WEIGHT) that should be used in analyzing the data. The weights were derived using demographic information
from the Census to adjust for sampling and nonsampling deviations from population values. Respondents customarily were classified into one of
48 cells based on age, race, sex, and education. Weights were assigned so the proportion in each of these 48 cells matched the actual population
proportion according to the Census Bureau's most recent Current Population Survey.
description: Households were selected by random-digit dialing. Within households, the respondent selected was the adult living in the household who last had a birthday and who was home at the time of the interview. Respondents aged 18-29 years of age were oversampled.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: ABC News/Washington Post Poll #2, December 2007
description: Persons aged 18 and over living in households with telephones in the contiguous 48 United States.
description: computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI)The data available for download are not weighted. Users will need to weight the data prior to analysis.The CASEID variable was created for use with online analysis.System missing values were recoded to -1.To preserve respondent confidentiality, codes for the variables FIPS (FIPS County) and ZIP (Zip Code) have been replaced with blank codes.The variables PCTBLACK, PCTASIAN, PCTHISP, BLOCKCNT, MSAFLAG, CSA, CBSA, METRODIV, ZIP, NIELSMKT, STCODE, and CONGDIST were converted from character to numeric.Several codes in the variable CBSA contain diacritical marks.The data collection was produced by Taylor Nelson Sofres of Horsham, PA. Original reports using these data may be found via the ABC News Polling Unit Web site and via the Washington Post Opinion Surveys and Polls Web site.The variables CSA, METRODIV, CBSA, and MSA contain unknown codes.