Following are several key findings from the poll of voters and nonvoters in the 2000 election over the age of 18:

Why NONVOTERS Stayed Home
• 24% were not registered
• 13% didn’t like the candidates
• 8% were either working of ill
• 7% were travelling or out of town
• 4% didn’t know enough about candidates/felt vote would didn’t have make a difference

Why VOTERS Showed Up
• 35% felt it was their civic duty
• 17% wanted to exercise their right to vote
• 14% cited their desire to have a voice
• 11% liked or disliked the candidates
• 10% always vote
• 5% voted because politics is important
• 3% felt that every vote counts

Most Important Problem Facing the Country
NONVOTERS
• Government/Congress (13%)
• Economic Issues (13%)
• Crime/Violence (9%)
• Ethics/Values (9%)
• Homelessness/Poverty (8%)

VOTERS
• Ethics/Values (22%)
• Government/Congress (15%)
• Education (10%)
• Economic Issues (10%)
• Crime/Violence (6%)

Participation
• 48% of eligible voters stayed home
• 52% voted
• 27% of all nonvoters are between the ages of 18 and 29
• 40% of nonvoters are Independents, compared with 27% of voters

Other Key Results
• 68% of nonvoters and 69% of voters have a favorable opinion of newspapers
• 59% of nonvoters and 47% of voters have a favorable opinion of TV news
• 66% of nonvoters and 74% of voters have a favorable opinion of the Supreme Court
• 55% of nonvoters and 61% of voters have a favorable opinion of Congress
• 67% of nonvoters follow what’s going on in government and public affairs at least some of the time

The Campaign Study Group conducted interviews with 1,912 randomly selected U.S. adults age 18 and older (1,053 were voters/859 were nonvoters). The survey was conducted from November 8 through December 5, 2000 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3%..