If the rank and file of (name any major religion) voted like Mormons, BO would never have been . . . re-elected in 2012.That could be interpreted in two ways. I've never paid attention to the percentage of LDS registered voters who voted, or LDS members of age who are registered voters.
I do know, from Pew and other polls, that a higher percentage of 'evangelical Christians' voted for Mitt Romney over Obama than did LDS members. Romney received only 78% of the LDS vote in 2012. Non-hispanic Catholics voted at a higher rate for Romney than did LDS voters.
I do know, from Pew and other polls, that a higher percentage of 'evangelical Christians' voted for Mitt Romney over Obama than did LDS members. Romney received only 78% of the LDS vote in 2012. Non-hispanic Catholics voted at a higher rate for Romney than did LDS voters. First of all, my apologies for being late with a response. An intelligent post such as yours deserves an intelligent response, but I generally wait until the usual gaggle of idiots on these threads have punched themselves out with the usual cut and paste garbage.
While I would be interesting in seeing your link, I doubt the veracity of the data for these reasons:
- Actual voting data. The most Mormon county in the United States is Franklin County, Idaho at 92% which delivered a 92% vote for Mitt Romney according to Leip's election atlas. This was up from 86% for McCain the previous cycle. The increase can probably be attributed just as much to the four years under Obama as the thrill of voting for a fellow tribesman. You will get similar results when you look at much large counties with overwhelming majority Mormon populations such as Utah County, Utah or Madison County, Idaho.
- By contrast, if you look at the near equally heavily Evangelical counties near the Red River in Texas and Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle, most of the results will be in the 70% to 80% range. Damn impressive, to be sure, but not more that the Mormon majority counties. One notable exception is King County, Texas, which delivered a whopping 96% for Romney (and 93% for McCain). But with only 150 or so voters, I don't think you can extrapolate a trend here.
- While I have little doubt that Mass attending, active, practicing, non-Hispanic Catholics delivered overwhelming majorities for the GOP ticket maybe comparable, but probably somewhat less, than the Evangelical counties cited in point #2, the very fact that you have to filter it so narrowly to compare with a Mormon sample which includes non-church attending, non-practicing, non-race filtered cultural Mormons only probably means you've lost the argument. I could test that supposition with actual results data but I know of no overwhelmingly Catholic counties in the United States to compare with the Evangelical majority Red River and panhandle counties in Texas and Oklahoma or Mormon majority counties in Utah or Idaho.
- The only thing close might be the counties near me in SW Pennsylvania where Catholics enjoy, if not a majority, at least a strong plurality. With the exception of Allegheny (Pittsburgh/big city/large population of minority and deceased voters), we delivered a much narrower GOP majority in the 50-60% range.
The actual data therefore indicates that predominately white, practicing religious voters of all stripes vote for the more conservative candidate in numbers comparable to, but still somewhat less than Mormon voters as a whole, including Mormons who drink beer, don't attend church or have any affiliation other than cultural.