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Americans deal with USPS and DMV staff more than any other local officials

Reading

The post office and the DMV are Americans' main points of contact with local government: 60% have interacted with officials at the United States Postal Service and 55% with officials at the Department of Motor Vehicles, a January 2024 Verasight survey of 3,000 U.S. adults finds.

Public school teachers (48%) and local police (48%) come next, and 37% have dealt with officials at the Social Security Office. One-in-five Americans (20%) say they have not met any local government officials.

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Selected responses

Americans deal with USPS and DMV staff more than any other local officials.

Have you interacted with ANY of the local officials listed below?

  • Officials at the United States Postal Service (USPS) 59.9%
  • Officials at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) 54.8%
  • Public school teachers 48.4%
  • Local police 48.2%
  • Officials at the Social Security Office (SSO) 36.7%
  • I have not met any local government officials. 19.6%
  • Other local officials not listed above (please specify) 3.9%

2024 · base n 1,000 · +/- 3.5%

Verasight Interdisciplinary Omnibus Survey #2024-006

Source report pending

Methodology

Source report pending
Mode
Verasight panel recruited via random address-based sampling, random person-to-person text messaging, and dynamic online targeting
Field dates
2024-01-18 → 2024-01-24
Base (unweighted)
1,000
Margin of error
+/- 3.5%
Module
Verasight Interdisciplinary Omnibus Survey #2024-006

Source

  • 01
    Source report pending

Citation

Verasight Interdisciplinary Omnibus Survey #2024-006, fielded January 18-24, 2024, N=1,000 United States adults, +/- 3.5%.

Source report pending

Verasight survey methodology

How Verasight conducts surveys.

This page describes the Verasight general survey contract, separate from how the Data Library packages it. When a wave report is published, its field dates, sample sizes, and module breakdown are listed in that report.

Mode
Verasight panel recruited via random address-based sampling, random person-to-person text messaging, and dynamic online targeting.
Population
US adults age 18+.
Sample design
Surveys are run as omnibus or single-topic waves. Omnibus waves are split into modules with their own respondent set, typically around one thousand respondents per module.
Field window
Each wave specifies its own field dates. Most omnibus waves field across roughly two weeks.
Weighting
Per-module weighting to CPS targets including age, race and ethnicity, sex, income, education, region, and metropolitan status.
Partisanship benchmark
Pew Research Center's NPORS benchmarking surveys, three-year running average.
Vote benchmark
2024 presidential vote population benchmarks.
Margin of error
Typically about plus or minus 3.4 to 3.6 percent per module at standard module sizes. Question-level MoE is recomputed when a base shrinks materially below the module baseline.
Reporting
The canonical report hub is reports.verasight.io. Verified legacy reports remain on their original hosts, and unpublished reports are marked pending.
Transparency
Verasight is a member of the American Association for Public Opinion Research Transparency Initiative.

The canonical report hub is reports.verasight.io; older reports may remain on verified legacy hosts.