Kerry and the religious vote

Kerry gets America and religion

The fact is, the religion gap in America is not a clear-cut black-white, Red-Blue situation. It's fuzzier than that.

For example, while Time found a majority (56%) agrees that "We are a religious nation, and religious values should serve as a guide to what our political leaders do in office," less than half (48%) say "the President should allow his personal religious faith to guide him in making decisions as President".

In that discrepancy -- the 8% that agreed with the former statement but not the latter -- probably lies the religious swing vote.

In fact, based on Election 2000 exit poll data, the swing is probably a little bigger than that.

Much of the media (not all) have pounded the notion that the majority of the nation is intensely devout, and those who are more secular are an elitist, out-of-touch minority.

But the 2000 electorate was evenly split between those who attend service weekly or more than weekly (42%) and those who attend seldom or never (42%).

About 60% of regular attendees went for Bush (not 100% mind you). The seldom/nevers were in the mid-to-high 50s for Gore.

How did Gore win the popular vote?

By edging out Bush (51%-46%) in the religious swing: the 14% of the electorate that attend services "monthly".