In January, nine prominent Christian leaders sent a letter to polling and political directors represented in the national election pool urging them to measure the voting behavior of evangelicals in both parties.
Following the February primaries in Tennessee and Missouri, Faith and Public Life — A Resource Center for Justice and the Common Good — began to take up the task of surveying both Republican and Democrat voters. The results showed what Faith and Public Life called “large numbers” of white evangelicals participating in both the Republican and Democratic primaries.
In each state the numbers where similar: Roughly one-third of white evangelical voters participated in the Democratic primaries.
After Ohio’s primary, a poll also commissioned by Faith in Public Life, the Center for American Progress Action Fund and Sojourners, and conducted by Zogby International, indicated “43 percent of white evangelical Ohio primary voters took part in the Democratic primary and 57 percent in the Republican one.”
The poll, with a 5-percentage point margin of error, also showed that 42% of the state’s white evangelical voters gave jobs and the economy more weight in deciding how to vote over 14% who viewed abortion and same-sex marriage as the top issues. A 54% majority said they want a broader issue agenda in this election to include “ending poverty, protecting the environment, and tackling HIV/AIDS.”
Mark Silk at Spiritual Politics, a blog on religion and the 2008 election campaign, sponsored by The Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., has additionally proposed that Democratic-voting respondents to polls be asked if they normally vote Democratic in national elections.
