DOI: 10.3886/icpsr04481.v1
title: CBS News Telenoticas Survey, October 1996
title: Version 1

description: This poll, fielded October 23-27, 1996, 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 to give their opinions of President Bill Clinton and his handling of the presidency and issues such as foreign policy. Several questions asked how much respondents had been paying attention to the presidential campaign, whether they were likely to vote in the election for president, which candidate they would vote for if the presidential and United States House of Representatives elections were being held that day, whether they had favorable opinions of the candidates and trusted them, and who they expected to win. Respondents were asked to rate the condition of the national economy, whether they thought trade with other countries, such as Mexico and Canada, was good for the United States economy, whether they approved of the way Bill Clinton was handling relations with Cuba, Mexico, and Canada, and the importance of these countries to the United States' interests. Several questions asked for respondents' opinions on welfare, including whether most people on welfare were immigrants or belonged to a specific ethnic group, whether respondents approved of a recent law that changed the welfare system, and whether eligibility for welfare should be limited. A series of questions asked respondents whether trade restrictions were necessary, whether they favored the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), whether it should be expanded to other Latin American countries, and how many foreign products respondents had purchased in the past few years. Respondents were asked for their opinions on immigration to the United States, including the effects of immigration on society, whether immigrants should be eligible for entitlements programs and other benefits, and the country of origin of current legal and illegal immigrants. Information was also collected on whether respondents considered themselves part of the conservative Christian movement, and Hispanic respondents were asked about their country of birth and that of their ancestors. Additional topics included abortion, affirmative action, race and gender discrimination in job hiring practices, the trade embargo against Cuba, and whether the government should be more involved in people's lives and do more to solve national problems. Demographic variables include sex, race, age, household income, education level, political party affiliation, political philosophy, voter participation history and registration status, employment status, military service, whether respondents had any children under the age of 18, household union membership, length of time living at current residence, and type of residential area (e.g., urban or rural).
description: The data contain a weight variable that should be used for analysis.
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS1: Dataset
description: CBS News/New York Times Poll Series
description: telephone interview 
 (1) The data available for download are not weighted, and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis. (2) The data and documentation for this study were acquired from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. (3) Value labels for unknown codes were added in the variables Q10 and Q54. (4) The variables AREA_CODE and EXCH_CODE were recoded for confidentiality. (5) Interviews were conducted in both English and Spanish, as indicated in the variable HISPANIC. Survey questions appear in both languages in the data collection instrument. (6) The probable electorate is accessible by using the WEIGHT_2 variable. (7) This study includes an oversample of Hispanic respondents as indicated in the SAMPLE variable. (8) The original data file contained three records per case and was reformatted into a data file with one record per case. (9) ICPSR created a unique sequential record identifier variable named CASEID.
description: Adult population of the United States aged 18 and over having a telephone at home.
description: Stratified random digit dialing. Within households, respondents were selected using a method developed by Leslie Kish and modified by Charles Backstrom and Gerald Hursh (see Backstrom and Hursh, SURVEY RESEARCH, Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1963). The data contain an oversample of Hispanic respondents.