The below table is intended to provide a basis for comparing the free/unaided recall responses to Question 2 with the ratings for a list of information sources in Questions 3 through 9. This table should be regarded as only a rough appropriation: It involved significant guessing to categorize vague and ambiguous responses. It is also vulnerable to a degree of clerical error.
Even though people were not asked to order their choices, such an order is likely in many of the responses and is recorded in the table.
There were three information sources not in Q3-Q9 that were mentioned by enough respondents to be noted here.
Palo Alto at a Critical Crossroadby outgoing Council member Jack Morton that was mailed to voters city-wide (delivered approximately October 17). Although it touched on important issues, it did not become part of the general discussion because it was widely judged to be irredeemably flawed: It had substantial errors in facts about the issues themselves and the history, and its mean-spiritedness and hypocrisy were likely to create significant diversions from a discussion of the issues.
information sources, for example
experienceand
gender, and were ignored. But these were surprisingly few.
PAN Forumwould be counted only in that category and not also used to increment the count for
Forumsin general.
PAN and LVW Forumswas treated as a mention of each—it was not treated as if it was a mention of forums in general. Thus, adding together the subcategories will sometimes produce a higher total than actually occurred, but these cases were few enough that they don't make a significant difference.
Newspaperswould be interpreted as news coverage when that respondent gave a low rating to newspaper endorsements. However, if the other responses involved endorsements,
Newspaperswas counted there, and not in news coverage.
Variants of the phrase Personal knowledge
were common responses.
In some cases, it appeared to mean things learned by following the news and personality over the years;
in others, it appeared to mean information from personal contact, family, friends, neighbors, …
In most cases, it was too vague to warrant a guess.
Question | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Total | Negative |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3. Endorsements | 10 | 12 | 7 | 3 | 32 | 2 | |
3a. Newspapers | 6 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 24 | |
- Daily News | 1 | 5 | 2 | 8 | |||
- Daily Post | 3 | 4 | 2 | 9 | |||
- PA Weekly | 21 | 14 | 9 | 5 | 49 | ||
3b. Officials | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | ||
3c. Organizations | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 2 |
3d. Community | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||
4. Recommendations | |||||||
4a. Lawn signs | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 1 |
4b. Friends&Family | 24 | 18 | 31 | 16 | 8 | 96 | |
4c. 3rd Party | 1 | 1 | |||||
4d. Online groups | 1 | 1 | |||||
5. Ads | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |||
5a. in newspapers | 1 | ||||||
5b. news websites /video interviews | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 11 | ||
5c. Cable TV | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||
5de. Doorstep+Mail | 18 | 24 | 25 | 14 | 4 | 85 | 6 |
5g. candidate web | 6 | 11 | 7 | 2 | 26 | ||
6. Forums | 23 | 15 | 9 | 4 | 51 | ||
- PAN | 21 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 27 | ||
- LWV | 13 | 5 | 1 | 19 | |||
7. Pubs, comp | |||||||
7a. Questionnaires | 1 | 4 | 3 | 8 | |||
- PAN | 20 | 16 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 51 | |
- Crescent Park (in their newsletter) | 4 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 13 | |
7b. SCC Guide | 25 | 21 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 63 | |
7c. LWV Guide/Questionnaire | 9 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 26 | |
7d. SmartVoter website | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 11 | ||
7x. Morton booklet | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 17 | |
7y. Moran essays | 3 | 8 | 1 | 12 | |||
8. Personal | 24 | 14 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 48 | |
8a. Coffees&... | 17 | 16 | 12 | 5 | 4 | 54 | |
8b. Door-to-door | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||
8d. Supporters | |||||||
9. Newspapers: Articles and Interviews | 30 | 26 | 20 | 6 | 2 | 84 | |
9a. Daily News/SJMN | 2 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 18 | ||
9b. Daily Post | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |||
9c. PA Weekly | 45 | 26 | 15 | 6 | 92 |