DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03225.v1
title: CBS News Monthly Poll #3, October 2000
title: Version 1

description: This poll, conducted October 29-31, 2000, is part of a
 continuing series of surveys that solicit public opinion on the
 presidency and on a range of other political and social issues. The
 study was conducted to assess respondents' interest in and opinions
 about the 2000 presidential election. Respondents were asked whether
 they intended to vote in the upcoming presidential election on
 November 7, 2000, and for whom they would vote if the election were
 held on the day of the survey, given a choice among the following
 candidates: Vice President Al Gore and Connecticut senator Joe
 Lieberman (Democratic Party), Texas governor George W. Bush and
 former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney (Republican Party),
 conservative commentator Pat Buchanan (Reform Party), and consumer
 advocate Ralph Nader (Green Party). Respondents were asked to give
 their opinions of Gore and his job performance as vice president,
 Bush and his job performance as governor of Texas, Cheney, Lieberman,
 Buchanan, and Nader. Nader supporters were asked whether they would
 consider changing their vote in support of Gore, if they thought the
 presidential race was extremely close in their state. Views were
 sought on how intelligent Gore and Bush were, as well as whether
 either was prepared for the demands of the presidency. Additional
 topics covered the fairness of the current income tax system, whether
 military and defense spending should increase, whether laws governing
 the sale of handguns should be stricter, whether a smaller government
 with fewer services is preferable to a larger government with more
 services, the importance of the outcome of the presidential election,
 whether the government in Washington, DC, could be trusted, how the
 budget surplus should be spent, whether it was preferable to have a
 president and Congress from different political parties, the most
 important problem facing the country, and whether respondents saw
 their vote as a vote for or against the presidency of Bill Clinton,
 or neither. Background information on respondents includes age,
 gender, education, religion, political party, political orientation,
 voter registration and participation history, race, Hispanic descent,
children in household, years in community, and household income.
description: A variation of random-digit dialing using primary
 sampling units (PSUs) was employed, consisting of blocks of 100
 telephone numbers identical through the eighth digit and stratified
 by geographic region, area code, and size of place. 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).
description: Datasets: 
DS1: CBS News Monthly Poll #3, October 2000
description: Adult population of the United States aged 18 and over
having telephones at home.
description: 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.