DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03056.v1
title: ABC News/Washington Post Poll, May 2000
title: Version 1

description: This poll, fielded May 7, 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 (Democrat), Texas governor George W. Bush (Republican),
 conservative commentator Pat Buchanan (Reform), and consumer advocate
 Ralph Nader (Green). Their views were sought on the importance of gun
 control, protecting Social Security, and prescription drug benefits
 for the elderly in making their decision for whom to vote and which
 candidate could be trusted most in these areas. Respondents were asked
 whether they supported or opposed having Medicare cover prescription
 drugs for senior citizens, even if they had to pay more for
 Medicare. A series of questions addressed Social Security, including
 whether respondents believed Social Security would be there when they
 retired and whether they supported or opposed a plan in which people
 could choose to invest some of their Social Security contributions in
 the stock market. Respondents were asked for their opinions of the
 April 22, 2000, removal by federal agents of Elian Gonzalez, the
 six-year-old Cuban boy whose mother drowned when they attempted to
 immigrate to Florida, from the home of his Miami relatives and whether
 the relatives or Elian's father should be granted custody of him. A
 series of questions focused on gun control. Specific items addressed
 respondent support for laws requiring background checks at gun shows,
 trigger locks on stored guns, the registration of firearms, licenses
 for handgun owners, and banning the sale of assault weapons and the
 sale of handguns except to law enforcement. Additional questions
 addressed whether respondents lived in fear of guns, spoke with their
 children about guns, and had been threatened by a gun. Background
 information on respondents includes age, gender, political party,
 political orientation, voter registration, education, religion, labor
 union membership, household gun ownership, Hispanic origin, household
 income, children in household, and whether respondents regularly took
prescription drugs.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: ABC News/Washington Post Poll, May 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.