38% of Americans (52% of online Americans) rely on Internet for election coverage

Harris Interactive says 52% of online U.S. adults (38% of all U.S. adults) say that they rely on the Internet for information about politics, political issues and elections. The number of U.S. adults who have gone online for news within seven days prior to the survey being taken is at 88% compared to 80% who went online for news within seven days prior to the April 2004 survey. The topics that have seen the largest increases have been news about the weather (74%, up from 60% in April), not surprising given the recent hurricanes that hit Florida in September, and elections (32%, an increase from 23% in April). Since January 2004 the number of online U.S. adults who rely on the Internet for information about politics has increased from 46% to a current 52% who say that they rely on the Internet "some" or "a lot." Just under half (48%) say that they don't rely on the Internet. CNN (26%) is by far the most popular Internet site that online U.S. adults rely on for news about politics. The other main Internet sites that adults rely on are Yahoo (12%), Fox News (12%), MSNBC (10%), MSN (8%) and New York Times (6%). Among the online U.S. adult population (now 73% of all U.S. adults), men rely on the Internet more than women (57% vs. 48%) and those with college education (60%) or post-graduate education (70%) use it more than those who never went to college (40%). When it comes to politics, the use of the Internet is higher for Democrats (57%) than Republicans (47%) or Independents (55%).