Florida Southern Colleges McKay Center for Polling and Policy

Research
Release: 4-26-2017
Survey Type: Knowledge

Floridians General Knowledge of Government and Government

Systems

Sample size: 377

Sample Type: RDD. 18 years and over. Florida only. Approx.

40% landlines, 60% Cell lines.

Applied through: Telephone; 4-9-2017 4-19-2017 RDD

Descriptive

Chief investigator: R. Bruce Anderson, Ph.D., Director, Florida

Southern College McKay Center for Polling and Policy Research

The questions in this survey took three basic forms:

Following a general satisfaction question, respondents were asked a

series of question about their connections with news information,
ranging from the sources of their news to their trust in the news they
received from these sources.

These questions were followed by a series of questions on the general

familiarity of the respondent with various aspects of state and federal
government, including identifying various aspects of the mechanics
and personalities in these areas.

Finally, a series of general questions of a demographic nature were

asked. These included standard questions of age (a range), heritage
and education. An additional question was asked for the respondent to
label their general political ideology (conservative, liberal or
moderate).

Demographics and Ideology:

Ideology:

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Overall, 33.7% (valid percentages always used) of respondents
identified as conservative, 18.8% identified as liberal, and 35.3%
identified as moderate. About 12% did not answer.

Age (range):
In this population, 20.4% of respondents were in the 18-29 age range;
12.7% were in the 30-44 range; 32.6% were in the 45-64 range and
26.9% in the 65 and over category.

Education:
The highest education achieved query revealed a population in which
7.2% of respondents were in the grade 1- 11 (but not high school
graduates) category; 16.7% were at the high school graduate level;
27.9% had some college; 27.6% were college graduates and 12.2%
had attended some form of graduate training. 8.4% of respondents
chose not to answer this question.

Voter registration:
Overall, self-reported voter registration was at 78%, with 13.8%
answering that they were not registered, and 8.2% choosing not to
answer.

Race/Heritage:
In a separate question asking simply whether the respondent was of
Hispanic origin, 11.9% of respondents answered yes, with 79.2%
answering no. 8.2% did not answer this question.

Over all respondents, 66.6% reported that they were white; 11.4%
responded black, and 12.4% said they were of another race. 9.5%
Chose not to answer.

Gender:
The gender of respondents was determined via voice, by the caller:
50.1% were male and 49.9 were female.

Substantive Responses:

General Satisfaction:
59.4% of respondents said they were very satisfied with their life in
Florida; 28.8 said somewhat satisfied; 7.7% were somewhat
dissatisfied, and 3.2% replied very dissatisfied.

News and The News Media:

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We asked a series of questions on the subject of news coverage and
news sources used by the respondents, and their confidence in each.

Table 1: Enough Information From News Media?

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Percent
Valid I Do 182 48.0 48.3 48.3
I Do Not 151 39.8 40.1 88.3
Don't Know 37 9.8 9.8 98.1
No Answer 7 1.8 1.9 100.0
Total 377 99.5 100.0

Respondents were split between those who believed they were getting
enough information from the news media (48%) and those who said
they were not (39.8%).

Table 2: Main Source For News?

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Percent
Valid Television 155 40.9 41.1 41.1
Newspapers 27 7.1 7.2 48.3
Radio 26 6.9 6.9 55.2
The Internet 151 39.8 40.1 95.2
Other Source 6 1.6 1.6 96.8
Don't Know 6 1.6 1.6 98.4
No Answer 6 1.6 1.6 100.0
Total 377 99.5 100.0

Some of more interesting numbers were drawn from the question of

where the respondents got their news. Not surprisingly, perhaps was
the finding that well over a third (40.9%) cited Television as their main
source for news (we did not divide this question between cable/satellite
and available local channels); Yet, nearly that number (39.8%)
identified the internet as their main source. Newspapers, surprisingly,
came in at a negligible 7.1%, only barely topping radio (6.9%).

Table 3: If TV, Which source?

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 Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative
Percent
Valid CNN 35 9.2 9.3 9.3
Fox News 47 12.4 12.5 21.8
ABC 15 4.0 4.0 25.7
NBC 15 4.0 4.0 29.7
CBS 9 2.4 2.4 32.1
MSNBC 8 2.1 2.1 34.2
Other 19 5.0 5.0 39.3
Don't Know/No Answer 229 60.4 60.7 100.0
Total 377 99.5 100.0

Respondents who answered Television as their main source of news

were directed to a question which asked them what source they used
most. Fox News topped the list at 12.5%, followed by CNN at 9.3%.
The rest of the sources scattered in the low single digits.

Table 4: Trust and Confidence in the News?

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Percent
Valid A Great Deal 51 13.5 13.5 13.5
Fair Amount 169 44.6 44.8 58.4
Not Very Much 111 29.3 29.4 87.8
None At All 41 10.8 10.9 98.7
Don't Know/No Answer 5 1.3 1.3 100.0
Total 377 99.5 100.0

Our final question concerning the respondent information/news asked

simply if they had trust and confidence in the veracity of their news
source. 13.5% placed a great deal of confidence in their news; 44.8
said a fair amount, but 29.3% seemed skeptical not very much)
and nearly 11% responded none at all.

Basic Knowledge About Government:

We asked a series of questions concerning the respondents basic

knowledge of government mechanics and persons currently serving in
office.

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Table 5: How Long Does Senator Serve?

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Percent
Valid Two Years 57 15.0 15.1 15.1
Four Years 107 28.2 28.4 43.5
Six Years 139 36.7 36.9 80.4
Eight Years 27 7.1 7.2 87.5
Don't Know 39 10.3 10.3 97.9
No Answer 8 2.1 2.1 100.0
Total 377 99.5 100.0
Missing System 2 .5
Total 379 100.0

Our first question addressed the length of service for a United States
Senator. While over a third answered correctly (36.9%), over 50%
answered incorrectly and 10.3% did not know.

Table 6: Presidential Succession

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Percent Secretary of State 106 28.0 28.1 28.1
Chief Of Staf 19 5.0 5.0 33.2
Speaker of the House 191 50.4 50.7 83.8
Chief Justice of SCOTUS 10 2.6 2.7 86.5
Don't Know 40 10.6 10.6 97.1
No Answer 11 2.9 2.9 100.0
Total 377 99.5 100.0

We asked respondents if they knew who would succeed to the highest

office in the event that both the President and Vice President were
incapacitated. A little over 50% answered correctly; but 28% believed
it was the Secretary of State. A scattering assigned the office to the
Chief of Staf or the Chief Justice.

Table 7: Total Number US Senators

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 Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative
Percent
Valid*100 147 38.8 39.0 39.0
Other Answer 97 25.6 25.7 64.7
Don't Know 117 30.9 31.0 96.0
No Answer 15 4.0 4.0 100.0
Total 377 99.5 100.0*
*(one answer was mis-punched in coding)

When asked the number of seats in the US Senate, 39% of

respondents correctly answered 100; over a quarter of those answering
this question gave an incorrect answer, and 31% did not know.

Table 8: Capital of Florida

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Percent
Valid Orlando 6 1.6 1.6 1.6
Miami 5 1.3 1.3 2.9
Tallahassee 342 90.2 90.7 93.6
Tampa 6 .8 .8 94.4
Don't Know 3 .8 .8 95.2
No Answer 18 4.7 4.8 100.0
Total 377 99.5 100.0

Floridians seem not to be puzzled about where the state capital is

located: about 90% correctly identified Tallahassee.

Table 9: Why Some States Have More House Members than others

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Percent
Valid*Population 255 67.3 67.6 67.6
Other Answers 27 7.1 7.2 74.8
Don't Know 74 19.5 19.6 94.7
No Answer 20 5.3 5.3 100.0
Total 377 99.5 100.0*

*(one answer was mis-punched in coding)

We asked respondents to explain why some states had more

Representatives in the US House of Representatives than others did.
67.3% correctly cited population or some variant as the reason.

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Table 10: Current Governor of Florida?

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Percent
Valid Rick Scott 246 64.9 65.3 65.3
Other 15 4.0 4.0 69.2
3 1 .3 .3 69.5
Don't Know 94 24.8 24.9 94.4
No Answer 21 5.5 5.6 100.0
Total 377 99.5 100.0

While about 65% of respondents correctly identified the current

governor of Florida (Scott, in his second 4 year term); about 25% did
not know who the Governor was.

Table 11: Current Speaker of the US House?

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Percent
Valid Paul Ryan 168 44.3 44.6 44.6
Others 20 5.3 5.3 49.9
Don't Know 163 43.0 43.2 93.1
No Answer 26 6.9 6.9 100.0
Total 377 99.5 100.0

Less than half of Floridians interviewed in this poll knew who the
current Speaker of the House of Representatives was; 5.3 incorrectly
identified someone else, and 43% did not know.

Table 12: Name of First 10 Amendments

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Percent
Valid Bill of Rights 198 52.2 52.5 52.5
Don't Know 146 38.5 38.7 91.2
No Answer 33 8.7 8.8 100.0
Total 377 99.5 100.0

A little over half of respondents correctly identified the Bill of Rights

as the name given to the first ten amendments to the US Constitution;
but 38.7% did not know.

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Table 13: Responsibility for Only US Citizens

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Voting /Serve on Jury 247 65.2 65.5 65.5
Others 46 12.1 12.2 77.7
Don't Know 55 14.5 14.6 92.3
No Answer 29 7.7 7.7 100.0
Total 377 99.5 100.0

We asked respondents what civic responsibility was only open to US

Citizens. Almost two-thirds correctly identified either voting in US
elections or serving on juries; about 12% mis-identified an answer and
about 15% did not know.

Interactions:

For a finer look at the variables, we sought to divide answers by

subgroups. Given the small number of respondents, no attempt is
given to refer to statistical significance; we primarily look for larger
tendencies and trends.

Political Leanings:

Appendix 1 holds the tables for the political leanings variable, as split
out across the various questions.

Satisfaction with Florida:

A large majority, regardless of political ideology, are satisfied (either

very satisfied or somewhat satisfied) with life in Florida.

Enough Information from the Media:

There seems to be a split opinion across all respondents on the idea

that they are getting enough information from the news media.
Liberals are more sure of this, by about 20 points, than the
conservative or moderate groups.

Main source for news:

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When is comes to the main source for the respondents news, there are
only slight diference among the groups. All groups load highest on
television and the internet; slightly more liberals get their news from
the internet than do conservatives or moderates, but the diference is
trifling.

The notable figure here is that none of these groups are getting much
of their news from newspapers, which remain in single digits across the
array, never rising above 8% for any group. Radio is not much better,
scoring slightly higher with conservatives than with other groups, but
even here, only 10.2% of conservatives are using radio as their primary
source for news. This last perhaps suggests that the notion that many
conservatives rely on talk radio for news is severely flawed.

If your main source for news is television, which channel do you use?

The numbers here are small, and the scatter large; here is a general
tendency for liberals to lean to CNN and for conservatives to lean to
Fox. Few of the respondents loaded on the other choices.

Do you trust and have confidence in the news?

Conservatives appear to be slightly less trusting in their news than do

liberals or moderates; most respondents answered that they had at
least some confidence in the news they consume (a great deal of
trust or a fair amount of trust).

Government mechanics and identification questions:

Senators length of service:

About half of conservatives and half of liberal respondents correctly

answered this question; only a third of moderates did so. Wrong
answer preference across all political persuasions was 4 years, rather
than the correct 6 years.

Presidential Succession:

Slightly over half of all political ideologies had this one correct (Speaker
of the House); Second choice for all was Secretary of State.

Total number of US Senators:

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A little over a third of the respondents across the political preferences
had this correct (100); about one third answered that they did not
know, and under a third had some other answer.

Floridas Capital:

Almost all respondents, regardless of political position, answered this

question correctly.

Why some states have more House members than others:

About two-thirds of all respondents answered this question correctly

(population, or some variant on this theme); most of the remainder
answered that they did not know.

Current Governor of Florida:

Almost two-thirds of all respondents answered this question correctly

(Rick Scott). There was no impact by political persuasion.

Speaker of the US House:

There was no efect by political leaning on this question, though it is

worth noting that less than half of all respondents knew the answer.

Name of first ten amendments to the Constitution of the US:

No efect on these answers by Political preference.

Responsibility by only US citizens:

No efect on these answers by Political preference.

Summary for this variable:

Political Leanings of the respondents had little to no efect on the

news variables, though a slight preference was seen by liberals for
internet as their main source of news; of respondents who noted
television as their main source, more conservatives watched Fox News
than did liberals, by a wide margin; more liberals relied on CNN than
did conservatives. Moderates were almost equally split across the two.
Further, there appears to be almost no efect of political preference on

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the political knowledge variables. Though there are some disturbing
trends in these variables, they seem unafected by political persuasion.

Age and Youth

Appendix 2 holds the tables for the age range variable, as split out
across the various questions. The age range responses were split into
4 substantive ranges and no answer. The ranges were: 18-29; 30-
44; 35-64; and 65-over. There is also a category for no answer, of
course.

Satisfaction with Florida:

All age groups seem to be at least relatively satisfied with their life in
Florida; age does not seem to have much efect.

News and News Source Questions

Enough Information from the Media:

Here, there is a monotonic increase with age in positive responses to

this question the older the respondents were, the more likely they
were to answer that they did receive enough information from the
news. These ranges revealed an increase from 37.7% (18-29), to
41.7% (30-44), to 53.7% (35-64) and 56.9% for the 65 and over
category.

Main source for news:

On this variable, there is a correlative increasing and decreasing

reliance on television and the internet for news sources. The older the
respondent, the greater the likelihood that they watched television; the
younger they were, the more likely they were to rely on the internet.
There was practically no pattern (certainly not a statistical one) on the
utilization of newspapers or radio as a news source by age of
respondent. Both were very low, as reflected in other observations of
this variable, but no group really outpaced another in their use.

If your main source for news is television, which channel do you use?

In a general way, Fox news does better with the older viewers than do
other sources, but the scatter here is anything but clear. Respondents

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in all age groups seem as likely to watch pretty much any of these at
about the same rate.

Do you trust and have confidence in the news?

Generally, most age groups trust their media, at least a fair bit. The
two combined categories a great deal and a fair amount make up
the clear majority of the responses for all age ranges. There is little to
no patterning in the not very much and not at all categories across
the age groups.

Government mechanics and identification questions:

Senators length of service:

Here is the beginning of the pattern that tends to hold across this
variable on these types of questions the older the respondent, the
more likely they are to have political knowledge. Only about 28% of
those in the first category (18-29) correctly answered this question;
nearly half (47.1%) of people in the 65 and over category did.

Presidential Succession:

There is an alarming distance between age groups correctly identifying

the Speaker of the House as the successor should the President and
Vice President be incapacitated. Those falling into the less than 45
years of age categories were a sold 18-20 points behind the higher age
groups on this variable.

Total number of US Senators:

Here, only the 65 and over crowd seemed to know the number about
half (46.1%) answered this correctly. As with the other variables,
knowledge on this question faded as one reached into the younger
categories.

Floridas Capital:

Age range had no efect on knowledge on this variable.

Why some states have more House members than others:

Again, on this variable, age range favors the older respondents

consistently, though the diference between the younger respondents
(18-29 = 64.9%) and their older co-respondents (30-44, 66.7%; 45-64,
73.2%; 65 and over = 77.5%) is not as dramatic.

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Current Governor of Florida:

The lower age range is a good ten percentage points behind the upper
age ranges, collectively, on this question. 18-29 year old respondents
were correct about 57% of the time; 30-44 were at 70.8%; 45-64 at
73%; and 65 and older clocked in at about 72%.

Speaker of the US House:

The fallof on the age brackets which best knew this answer is rather
dramatic and very much in line with the pattern observed above. As
can be seen in the table, barely 30% of those 18-29 knew the answer
to this question; about 40% of those 30-44 did, and 55-60% of those in
the upper age category knew this.

Name of first ten amendments to the Constitution of the US:

This variable represents the only question upon which the 18-29 year
old age range can be ranked above their older counter-parts. Almost
70% knew the correct answer, over 10 percentage points above their
older counterparts.

Responsibility by only US citizens:

The respondents to this question return us to the positive efect on

political knowledge observed in the majority of questions in this
section. The youngest age group is nearly 10 percentage points
behind the other age categories.

Summary for this variable:

It is not overstating this finding to say that the younger people in the
survey were, the less likely they were to know the answers to political
mechanism/personnel questions; the younger they were, the more
likely they were to use the internet; younger respondents were also
most likely to answer that they were dissatisfied with their news and
information, though they trusted what they did get as much as the
other age brackets.

A note on Age and Political Leanings:

Though the distribution across age range of the political leanings

variable is roughly even, it may be worthy of note that that younger
people are more moderate; those between the ages of 30-64, identify
as somewhat more conservative, and the older respondents more as
liberal.

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Education:

The education identifier variable is framed by responses that

categorize respondents into highest education level reached. These
categories are any grade between 1 and 11; high school graduate;
some college; college graduate and graduate school. Callers
accepted MBAs, MATs, EDDs and so on as graduate school; college
graduate includes both two and four year degrees.

Satisfaction with Florida:

Those with graduate degrees are most satisfied with life in Florida, at
78.3%; those least likely to describe themselves as very satisfied are
people in the 1-11 grade range at 40.7%. This lower education
group also contributes greatest to the somewhat dissatisfied and
very dissatisfied categories. With the caveat that no group rises
above 11% in either category.

Enough Information from the Media:

The question on enough information provided by the news media

was split into those who did think they had enough information and
those that did not (with a dont know and no answer category as
well, of course). The grades 1-11 category were slightly split (37/44%)
but the n for this category is very low. For those remaining, more
believed they were getting enough information than did not.

Main source for news:

The main sources for news are roughly split across the ranks of
education. Those with lower levels of education seem to rely primarily
on television; those who are college graduates and above rely more on
the internet. It is on this variable that newspapers get some minor
notice: graduate school veterans cite newspapers as their primary
source of news at about 15%.

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If your main source for news is television, which channel do you use?

The pattern across the channels utilized by those who cite television as
their primary source of news is quite scattered, though it is within
confidence to say that Fox News is favored by those with lower levels
of education.

Do you trust and have confidence in the news?

As with other variables examined above, the level of education seems

to have little or nothing to do with the level of trust and confidence
that the respondents had in their news. There are a few departures,
but they are negligible.

Government mechanics and identification questions:

Senators length of service:

The dreadful observation on this variable is not that a higher education

level makes the respondent more likely to answer this question
correctly it does but that only the graduate school level rises above
50% correct answers.

Total number of US Senators:

Only college graduates (61.5%) and graduate school level (82.6%)

respondents scored above 50% on this variable. Perhaps the more
interesting observation is that there is a 20% diference between these
two education ranges.

Floridas Capital:

This variable ranges across correct answers as one might expect, with
1-11 grade level answering correctly at 85%, and graduate level
respondents at 100%.

Why some states have more House members than others:

While most respondents did get this answer correctly, the 1-11 grade
level only correctly answered it correctly at 30%.

Current Governor of Florida:

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Most respondents knew who the governor of Florida is, overall, but less
than half of those with the 1-11 grade level did; highest scoring on this
measure were graduate education level respondents, at 93%.

Speaker of the US House:

With this question, few than a third of 1-11 and high school graduates
knew the answer; only a little over half of college graduates knew it. It
is only at the graduate school level that the respondents hit the 80%
mark.

Name of first ten amendments to the Constitution of the US:

There is almost no efect of education level on this variable.

Responsibility by only US citizens:

All categories scored above 50% correct, collectively, on this question,

with 1-11 grade level respondents at 59% and graduate school level
respondents at 98%.

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