DOI: 10.3886/icpsr27330.v1
title: Washington Post Maryland Poll, October 2008
title: Version 1

description: This special topic poll, fielded October 16-20, 2008, is part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public opinion on a range of political and social issues. The topic of this survey was government performance in the state of Maryland, slot machines, and the budget deficit. Residents of Maryland were asked about the job performance of Governor Martin O'Malley and whether they approved of the way he is handling his job as governor. Respondents identified the most important issues facing the state of Maryland, whether the state was moving in the right direction, and rated the condition of the state economy. Respondents were also asked what the chances were that they would vote in the upcoming presidential election. Several questions asked for respondents' opinions on Question Two on the state ballot: the constitutional amendment about slot machines in Maryland. Respondents were asked whether they approved of having slot machines in Maryland, what was the main reason they either approved or disapproved of slot machines, and if the slots plan passed, they thought it would help the state's budget situation. Respondents were queried on their thoughts of the direction of the nation's economy as well as their own family's financial situation. Respondents were asked about their impressions of the candidates for Maryland governor in 2010, and who they would vote for in the election. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, household income, education level, voter registration status, political party affiliation, political philosophy, religious preference, religiosity, union membership, whether respondent is a born-again Christian, and the presence of children under age 18 living at the residence.
description: The data contain a weight variable (WEIGHT) that should be used in analyzing the data. The data were weighted using demographic information from the Census to adjust for sampling and non-sampling 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: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Standardized missing values.; Created online analysis version with question text.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes..
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS1: Washington Post Maryland Poll, October 2008
description: ABC News/Washington Post Poll Series
description: computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) 
The data available for download are not weighted and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis.
The variables PCTBLACK, PCTASIAN, PCTHISP, MSAFLAG, CSA, CBSA, METRODIV, NIELSMKT, BLOCKCNT, and ZIP were converted from character variables to numeric.
To preserve respondent confidentiality, codes for the variables FIPS (FIPS County) and ZIP (ZIP Code) have been replaced with blank codes.
System-missing values were recoded to -1.
The CASEID variable was created for use with online analysis.
 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.
description: Persons aged 18 and over living in households with telephones in the state of Maryland.
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. Please refer to the codebook documentation for more information on sampling.