DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02167.v2
title: Washington Post 1996 Politics Poll, Wave 2, November 1996
title: Version 2

description: This special topic poll, conducted November 6-10, 1996, is
 part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public
 opinion on the presidency and on a range of political and social
 issues. The focus of this data collection was on the presidential and
 congressional elections held November 5, 1996. In the days following
 the election, respondents who had voted were asked about their choice
 for president, when they decided on their candidate, whether they had
 known enough about the candidates to make an informed choice, and
 whether factors such as leadership and a candidate's stance on issues
 were major or minor reasons for their vote. Respondents were quizzed
 on their knowledge of the presidential and vice-presidential
 candidates, as well as party platforms, campaign funding, and which
 party had the most members in the United States Congress. Views were
 sought on the media's treatment of the presidential candidates,
 campaign advertisements featuring the issue of Medicare, whether the
 presidential campaigns were more negative than in the past, and
 whether the news media should report public opinion poll results.
 Other topics addressed the condition of the national economy,
 abortion, sources of campaign information, types of negative news
 media coverage, and how much attention respondents paid to media
 coverage of the presidential campaign. Demographic variables include
 sex, age, race, ethnicity, education level, marital status, household
 income, political party affiliation, political philosophy, labor union
 membership, voter registration status, religious preference, and
 whether respondents thought of themselves as born-again or evangelical
Christians.
description: The data contain a weight variable (WEIGHT) that should be
 used in analyzing the data. This poll consists of "standard" national
 representative samples of the adult population with sample balancing
of sex, race, age, and education.
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.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Washington Post 1996 Politics Poll, Wave 2, November 1996
description: Persons aged 18 and over living in households with
telephones in the contiguous 48 United States.
description: telephone interview(1) The data available for download are not weighted
 and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis. (2) Original
 reports using these data may be found via the
 Washington
 Post Opinion Surveys and Polls Web site. (3) The meaning of the
 variable SELECTB is unknown and may be associated with the sampling
 method of selecting a respondent based on the adult living in the
 household who last had a birthday. (4) According to the data
 collection instrument, code 3 in the variable EDUC includes
 respondents who answered that they had attended a technical school.
 (5) A value label for an unknown code was added in the AGE
 variable. (6) The CASEID variable was created for use with online
analysis.