As shown in Figure 3, the number of Accessors rose steadily, but slightly, over the course of the Democratic primaries. Twenty percent of Intenders with internet access reported going online to access information about the presidential campaign between October 7, 2003, and January 12, 2004. From January 13 to 27, that number climbed marginally to 23 percent, and it peaked in the period after New Hampshire through Super Tuesday to 25 percent. The increase was statistically significant from the first and third periods.
Where did these growing numbers of Accessors go online to get their information? During the primary campaign, each candidate had a website, and most had weblogs to compete with the news organization websites and other political sites and blogs providing campaign information.
Even with the existence of all these other sources, Accessors mainly went to news organizations' websites for their online political information.
Though a much smaller proportion, the percentage of Accessors who visited candidate websites or blogs increased over time, peaking in the period around the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, when one-fifth of Accessors obtained information this way.
Figure 4 shows that two-thirds of Accessors were clicking onto news sites in the early part of the campaign. That proportion climbed to 77 percent around the time of the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire primary. In the period between New Hampshire and Super Tuesday, the number dropped slightly to 73 percent.
Other websites visited by Accessors for their political information included MoveOn.org, the Drudge Report, AOL or MSN, the Democratic Party website, and search engines like Google.com and Yahoo.com. Early in the campaign, about a quarter of Accessors visited something other than a traditional news or candidate site. As the campaign progressed, the number accessing information from these other sites declined as traffic to the candidates' sites grew.
In the early days of the 2004 Democratic primary campaign, Howard Dean was consistently leading national and many statewide polls. Much of Dean's strength, some argued, lay in his effective use of the internet to reach young voters and to raise money. Our findings support Dean's early internet strength.
In the NAES04 data, Governor Dean's lead was much stronger among Accessors, but it declined along with his overall electoral fortunes. Dean's support among this group during the October 7-January 12 time period was 32 percent, while among Non-Accessors it was twelve points lower (20 percent), as shown in Figure 5. Additionally, at this early stage of the campaign when some pundits were suggesting John Kerry's campaign was "floundering," the Massachusetts senator was earning nearly equal support from both Accessors and Non-Accessors (10 percent Accessors and 8 percent Non-Accessors). 
After Kerry's decisive victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, the party quickly coalesced around his candidacy, leaving John Edwards as his only serious challenger. In the period following the New Hampshire primary (January 28-March 2), the campaigns of Richard Gephardt, Wesley Clark, Joseph Lieberman, and Howard Dean effectively ended, and John Edwards dropped out on March 3. As evidence of this coalescence, John Kerry continued to get an equal share of support from both Accessors and Non-Accessors during the January 28-March 2 period, but at this time Kerry was far ahead of Dean and Edwards (Figure 6). 
What can we say about the internet as a source of political information based on the 2004 election? In the months leading up to the Democratic presidential primaries and caucuses and continuing to Super Tuesday, March 2, the NAES04 demonstrated that despite the heavily frontloaded Democratic primary and caucus season, there was only a modest increase over time in the number of potential voters who turned to the internet from information about the campaign. Among this group, support for Howard Dean was stronger early on, but then declined with his fortunes in the campaign.
Consistent with prior research, those who did go online showed higher levels of political knowledge and attention. These individuals were also younger, better-educated, male, and more ideologically liberal. Thus, in the 2004 primary election, we continue to see evidence of a "digital divide" between the politically engaged and unengaged. Overall, however, this research suggests that the internet is an important source for obtaining campaign information.
Kenneth Winneg is managing director of the National Annenberg Election Survey (NAES04), a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Natalie Jomini Stroud is a Ph.D student at the Annenberg School for Communication of the University of Pennsylvania and a research analyst on the NAES04 project.
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