Washington — Three-quarters of American adults view the federal government as secretive, and nearly nine in 10 say it’s important to know presidential and congressional candidates’ positions on open government when deciding who to vote for, according to a Sunshine Week survey by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University.

The survey shows a significant increase over the past three years in the percentage of Americans who believe the federal government is very or somewhat secretive, from 62 percent of those surveyed in 2006 to 74 percent in 2008.

“In a democracy whose survival depends on openness, it’s sobering to see that three-fourths of Americans now view their national government as somewhat or very secretive,” said David Westphal, Washington editor for McClatchy Newspapers and co-chairman of the American Society of Newspaper Editors Freedom of Information Committee. “On the other hand, it’s gratifying to see that almost 90 percent believe a candidate’s position on open government is an important issue when they make their Election Day choices.”

The survey of 1,012 adults was commissioned by ASNE for Sunshine Week, a national initiative that encourages discussions about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Sunshine Week’s 2008 Sunshine Campaign is a yearlong effort to have candidates for all level of office – from president to city council – discuss their positions on government access issues.

Half of respondents said government at the state level is secretive, while 44 percent viewed it as open. Nearly all interviewed, 92 percent, said open government is important to them in assessing candidates for state offices such as governor or attorney general. Those who see local government as secretive increased from 34 percent in 2007 to 40 percent in the 2008 survey. And 91 percent said the local candidate’s position and record on open government are important to them in making a voting decision.

People also overwhelmingly want access to information such as who lawmakers meet with each day (82 percent), police reports about specific crimes in local neighborhoods (71 percent), and permits for concealed handguns (66 percent). About half said they do not object to officials asking people seeking records to identify themselves or explain why they’d like to see the record.

Although only about a quarter of adults believe the federal government has opened their mail or monitored their telephone conversations without a federal warrant, three-quarters believe it has happened to people in the United States and two-thirds say it is very or somewhat likely to have happened to members of the news media.

The survey was conducted by telephone from Feb. 10-28 under the supervision of Robert Owens, operations manager of the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University. The co-directors of the center are Jerry Miller and Ani Ruhil. Guido H. Stempel III, distinguished professor emeritus at Ohio University, also assisted the project.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Sunshine Week, www.sunshineweek.org, is a non-partisan open government initiative led by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, www.asne.org, with online and broadcast media, public officials, celebrities, civic groups, non-profits, libraries, schools, religious leaders and others. Sunshine Week is endowed through a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, www.knightfdn.org, which invests in journalism excellence worldwide and the vitality of the 26 communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. It focuses on projects with the potential to create transformational change.

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The following are selected findings from a survey of 1,012 adult residents of the United States conducted by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University in a study commissioned by the American Society of Newspaper Editors for Sunshine Week.

Here are some questions about whether you feel government in America is open and transparent or whether you think government is closed and secretive. When talking about the local government in your community, do you think local government is very open, somewhat open, somewhat secretive or very secretive?

How about your state government? Is it is very open, somewhat open, somewhat secretive or very secretive?

How about the federal government based in Washington, D.C.?

How likely do you think it is that the federal government has opened mail or monitored telephone conversations of people in the U.S. without first getting permission from a federal judge? Is it very likely, somewhat likely, somewhat unlikely or very unlikely that the federal government has done these things without permission from a judge?

How likely do you think it is that the federal government has opened your mail or monitored some of your telephone conversations?

How likely it is that the federal government has opened mail or monitored telephone conversations involving members of the news media?

How important to you is a candidate’s position on open government when you decide whom to vote for? So when you are voting for president, is a candidate’s position on open government very important, somewhat important, somewhat unimportant or very unimportant to you?

How about when voting for a member of Congress. Is open government very important, somewhat important, somewhat unimportant or very unimportant to you?

How about when voting for a candidate for state office like governor or attorney general?

How about when voting for your city council or school board?

Government records usually are considered public documents that people may view during normal business hours. Which of the following should be the government’s policy when releasing government documents: First, that people should be required to show identification and give a written reason for seeing the documents? Or second, that people should be required to speak their names and say why they want to see the documents? Or third, that they should speak their names but not be required to give a reason why they want to see the documents? Or fourth, that they should give a reason but not give their names? Or fifth, that they should not be asked either their names or why they want to see the records?

Lawmakers at the local, state, and federal levels meet with a lot of different people over the course of a day such as lobbyists, voters, other government officials and campaign donors. They usually keep lists of those visitors. Do you think the public should be allowed to see with whom lawmakers meet?

Just as with the question about access to public records, if people are allowed to see a lawmaker’s list of visitors, should people have to identify themselves and state reasons why they want to see the lists:

I’d like to ask some questions about whether governments should release information to the public. For example, should a city police department allow the public to see incident reports about specific crimes in local neighborhoods?

Some states allow people to carry concealed handguns if they get a permit. Should state governments allow the public to see who has been given permits to carry concealed handguns?

Source: National survey of 1,012 adult residents of the United States conducted by Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University from Feb. 10-28.

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The perception that the federal government often operates in secrecy has grown significantly in recent years, according to a series of polls conducted by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University.

Here are some questions about whether you feel government in America is open and transparent or whether you think government is closed and secretive. When talking about the federal government based in Washington, D.C, is it very open, somewhat open, somewhat secretive or very secretive?