DOI: 10.3886/icpsr09766
title: ABC News/Washington Post Clarence Thomas Vote Delay Polls, October 1991
title: Archival Version

description: This data collection consists of telephone surveys 
 concerning the delay of the vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee 
 Clarence Thomas due to the charge by former co-worker Anita Hill that 
 he sexually harassed her on the job. Demographic information on 
 respondents includes sex, race, age, state of residence, and 
 political party alignment. Parts 1 and 2 (October 8 and 9 Polls), 
 conducted the day the vote was delayed and the day after, examined 
 whether respondents had heard or read about the charge of sexual 
 harassment brought against Clarence Thomas, whether they approved of 
 the Senate's delaying the confirmation vote in order to look into the 
 charge, and whether the Senate should confirm Thomas's nomination to 
 the Supreme Court. Respondents were also asked whether the charge of 
 sexual harassment had changed their opinion on whether to support 
 Thomas, whether the charge, if true, would be reason enough for the 
 Senate to reject his nomination, and whether the charge against 
 Thomas was true according to their best guess. Additional questions 
 probed respondents' opinions on the way the Senate had handled the 
 Thomas nomination, whether the respondent was more likely to believe 
 the man or the woman if a woman said she was sexually harassed on the 
 job by a man, and if the respondent had ever been sexually harassed 
 at work. Part 3 (October 12 Poll), in addition to repeating questions 
 from Parts 1 and 2, examined how closely the respondent had been 
 following the news about charges of sexual harassment brought against 
 Clarence Thomas, whether Hill or Thomas was the more believable 
 witness, whether Thomas was qualified to be a Supreme Court justice, 
 whether Bush could have selected a more qualified candidate, and if 
 the respondent had ever been sexually harassed outside the job. Part 
 4 (October 13 Poll) replicated previous questions and probed new 
 areas, such as whether Clarence Thomas had been treated fairly or 
 unfairly as a Supreme Court nominee, whether Anita Hill had been 
 treated fairly or unfairly, and whether the person who leaked Anita 
 Hill's Senate Judiciary Committee statement to the news media should 
 face criminal charges. Additional questions included whether 
 respondents approved/disapproved of various people and groups who had 
 been involved in the Senate hearings on Thomas, whether respondents 
 had discussed the issue of sexual harassment with other people as a 
 result of the charge against Thomas, whether the attention given to 
 the issue of sexual harassment would make men be more careful in the 
 way they relate to women in the workplace, whether sexual harassment 
 of women in the workplace is a problem in this country, and whether 
 the Senate investigation of the sexual harassment accusation would 
 end up being a good or a bad thing for the country. Part 5 (October 
 14 Poll) repeated previous questions and added a new query addressing 
 the issue of whether the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the 
 sexual harassment charge against Clarence Thomas should have been 
held in private, in public, or not at all.
description: Households were selected by random digit dialing. Within 
 the household, the respondent selected was the adult living in the 
 household who last had a birthday and who was at home at the time of 
the interview.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: October 8 Poll
DS2: October 9 Poll
DS3: October 12 Poll
DS4: October 13 Poll
DS5: October 14 Poll
description: Adults aged 18 and over living in households with 
telephones in the 48 contiguous United States.
description: A weight variable has been included that must be used 
 in any analysis. Telephone exchanges have been recoded to "999" for 
reasons of confidentiality.