DOI: 10.3886/icpsr22166
title: Washington Post Maryland Elections Poll, June 2006
title: Archival Version

description: This special topic poll, fielded June 19-25, 2006, is part
 of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public opinion
 on the current presidency and on a range of other political and social
 issues. This poll surveyed 1,127 Maryland residents, including an
 oversample of Black respondents, on the upcoming primary and general
 elections in their state. Residents were asked whether they approved
 of the way President George W. Bush was handling the presidency, their
 level of interest in the upcoming elections in Maryland, and whether
 they were registered to vote. Registered voters were polled on the
 likelihood that they would vote in the Democratic primary and general
 election in Maryland, and for whom they would vote in the
 gubernatorial and senatorial races. Views were sought on how things
 were going in the state of Maryland, the city of Baltimore, and
 Montgomery County, and the problems facing the state of Maryland and
 the respondents' own community. Respondents gave their opinions of
 Governor Bob Ehrlich and First Lady Kendel Ehrlich, the governor's
 handling of his job and issues such as the protection of Chesapeake
 Bay, and the influence of various groups on his administration.
 Opinions were also elicited on Lt. Governor Michael Steele, former
 Governor William Donald Schaefer, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley,
 Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan, Democratic U.S. Senate
 candidates Ben Cardin and Kweisi Mfume, and the Democratic and
 Republican parties in Maryland. Additional topics addressed the war
 in Iraq, slot-machine gambling, gay marriage, abortion, the state
 legislature's decision to force Wal-Mart to spend more on employee
 health benefits, and the effect of immigration on the respondent's
 community. Information was also collected on respondents' county of
 residence, and which local television news station they
 watched. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, household
 income, marital status, education level, type of residential area
 (e.g., urban or rural), presence of children in the household,
 political party affiliation, political philosophy, voter registration
 status, religious preference, frequency of religious attendance, and
 whether respondents considered themselves born-again or evangelical
Christians.
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: 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. Black respondents were oversampled.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Washington Post Maryland Elections Poll, June 2006
description: Persons aged 18 and over living in households with
telephones in the state of Maryland.
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) This poll
 includes an oversample of Black respondents, as identified in the
 OVERSAMP variable. (4) Most survey questions in this poll were asked
 only of registered voters, as indicated in the data collection
 instrument. (5) The ZIP variable was recoded for confidentiality. (6)
 The variables PCTBLACK, PCTASIAN, PCTHISP, MSAFLAG, STCODE, CSA, CBSA,
 METRODIV, NIELSMKT, and ZIP were converted from character variables to
 numeric. Variables EDUBREAK, AGEBREAK, and RACENET were reformatted
 for use with online analysis. (7) System-missing values were recoded
 to -1. (8) The CASEID variable was created for use with online
analysis.