How People of Faith Voted in the 2008 Presidential Race

[dtotire]

How People of Faith Voted in the 2008 Presidential Race

November 11, 2008

(Ventura, California) - With the nation’s longest election campaign ever finally completed, and Barack Obama emerging as a 53% to 46% victor over Sen. John McCain, a new election analysis survey by The Barna Group provides the details of how people of faith voted in 2008.
Obsession or Sport?

News about the candidates and the election seemed ubiquitous for the past 18 months. Overall, two-thirds of all registered voters (67%) said they followed the 2008 election campaign "very closely" and another one-quarter (27%) followed it "somewhat closely." People who do not consider themselves to be Christians followed the campaign slightly more closely than did those who claim to be Christian (71% versus 67%).

To place that interest level in context, the 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, which ended in a dead heat, was followed "very closely" by just 43% of registered voters.


Evangelicals

Evangelicals are a small proportion of the national population - just 7% of all adults. But they tend to capture the imagination and attention of the national media and political pundits. The survey data consistently show that evangelical Christians have among the highest rates of voting turnout among all voter groups and are, in fact, strikingly different from the rest of the population - even from other born again Christians who are not evangelical.

As was true in the past two presidential elections, two-thirds of all evangelicals who were registered to vote (65%) were aligned with the Republican Party. One out of five (21%) was Democrats and just one out of ten (10%) was registered independent of a party. That puts evangelicals at odds with the national voter profile, which shows a plurality of Democrats (42%), one-third Republican (34%) and two out of ten (20%) independent of a party affiliation.

Most remarkably, however, was the overwhelming support registered among evangelicals for Republican candidate John McCain. In total, 88% voted for Sen. McCain, compared to just 11% for Sen. Obama. The 88% is statistically identical to the 85% of evangelicals who backed George W. Bush in 2004. Surveys conducted by Barna throughout the campaign season showed that evangelicals were not enthusiastic about either candidate, but on Election Day evangelicals came through in a big way for the most conservative major candidate on the ballot.

Evangelicals chose their candidate on a different set of indicators than did other voters. When asked their primary reason for supporting the candidate they selected, 40% of evangelicals said it was because of the candidate’s position on moral issues. Only 9% of other voters listed that as their driving reason. Other significant reasons for evangelical voters included their candidate’s political experience (23%) and his character (15%).

Unlike other polls, Barna surveys classify a person as an evangelical based upon their answers to nine questions about their theological beliefs. Most national surveys simply ask people if they consider themselves to be evangelical, born again or a committed conservative Christian. As a result, evangelicals in Barna surveys are significantly different than the groups reported in other surveys. For the sake of comparison, the Barna survey also examined the voting behavior of people who identified themselves as evangelicals. The self-identified evangelicals represented 41% of the adult population, although just 16% of them qualified as evangelicals under the Barna Group’s theological-based classification questions. Among the self-described evangelicals, 61% voted for Sen. McCain and 38% went with Sen. Obama.

more:

http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=321

[nichomachus]

1. Please stop with the "people of faith" crap

That's right-wing lingo to disguise the effects of religious intolerance.

Despite the fact I have certain beliefs (i.e. faith), I have nothing to do with churches, and so I wouldn't be considered a "person of faith." "Faith-based" group is another way of saying "churches."

It has nothing to do with faith and everything to do with churches as political pressure groups.

We need to tax them all.

[MineralMan]

2. After reading the entire article,

it's clear that the "evangelicals" are not more numerous than the agnostic/atheistic segment of this country. That's good news, since it means that those of us in the second category offset the "evangelicals."

The return of Catholics to the Democratic party is also heartening.

Barna usually gets this stuff pretty accurately. He's not well-loved by the wingers, since he points out in almost every survey that the wingnuts really, really don't represent the population of the USA.

[izquierdista]

3. Faith vs. Reason

How can anyone argue against reason? How can anyone argue against collecting facts, analyzing them, and drawing conclusions based on verified observations?

Easy. Give irrationality a new name and call it "faith".

[Bluenorthwest]

4. You mean 'Religious People'

and I find the backhand terminology to be insulting. As if only religionists have faith. Sick of the attitude, sick and tired.