FAITH, RACE AND THE 2000 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS:

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The year 2000 presidential elections were unique in living memory for the closeness of the results. Federally, George W Bush, the Republican party candidate, and Al Gore, the Democratic candidate differed by less than 1 %. In the state of Florida, they may have differed by only a few hundred votes.

But persons of different races and faith groups differed greatly in their relative support of Bush and Gore. Exit polls taken by Voter News Service uncovered the following data:

Distribution by religious group:

Unfortunately, the pollsters did not record Muslims separately; the pollsters lumped them together with many other minority faiths under the category of "other religions." Roman Catholics did not vote as heavily Democrat as in previous elections.

Looking at individuals who identified themselves as from the "religious right:"

Distribution by attendance at religious services:

As expected, high church attendance correlated positively with voting Republican.

Distribution by race:

In the key state of Florida, 93% of African-Americans voted Democrat compared with 7% for Republican. The data for Caucasians is clearly in error, as the total is in excess of 100%. 

References

1. "Religion, race matter in the voting booth," ReligionToday, 2000-NOV-10 

Copyright © 2000 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2000-NOV-10
Latest update: 2000-NOV-10
Author: B.A. Robinson