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FILE-A person votes during early voting at a polling station during the first round of early voting at a polling place October 21, 2024 in Deland, Florida. (Photo by MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images)

People take different approaches to obtaining information when deciding which candidate they might consider voting for in an election.

And while there’s no specific method to follow to get informed about a candidate or a key issue, a new poll finds that some Americans prefer to have their election questions answered by people in their inner circle.

In a survey conducted by The Civic Health and Institutions Project, a 50-state survey (CHIP50), about 29 percent of Americans said they rely on friends and family for information about the 2024 election.

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Americans with less formal education rely more on family and friends for election informationwhile people with higher education and income are more likely to favor news media.

Twenty-six percent of respondents said they rely on the media for voting information, while younger Americans (18-24) rely more on personal networks and the older population (65 and older) prefer news media.

When it comes to political parties, Democrats and independents (29%) say they prefer the news media for election information, compared to 34% of Republicans who say they get information from family and friends.

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Three-quarters of Americans identify sources other than the news media as their primary way to be informed about the 2024 election, while 17 percent of respondents say they prefer national media and 8 percent rely on local media for news electoral.

About 25 percent of people said they were very or extremely satisfied with local political news, with higher satisfaction levels among respondents of color (35 percent), Democrats (38 percent), and residents who live in urban areas (33 percent ).

Local news was the preferred source for election information among Americans with higher incomes and formal education, as well as older Americans and people with less income and education, the survey found.

How do states get their election information?

The survey reveals that people living in certain states tend to depend on national news for election information more than others, particularly in Connecticut (26%), Massachusetts (26%) and Nevada (25%), while Hawaii ( 14%), Louisiana (13%) and South Carolina (12%) are the places where residents are most likely to rely on local news.

Separately, Washington, DC (48%), New York (42%), North Carolina (33%), Pennsylvania (33%), Michigan (31%) and Illinois (30%) reported the highest satisfaction with local news about politics.

Meanwhile, Montana (50%), Idaho (49%), Wyoming (45%), New Mexico (45%) and New Hampshire (40%) were more dissatisfied with local news outlets for election coverage.