Catholic voters mirror general electorate

By Patricia Zapor
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON. Catholics pretty much voted the way the rest of the country did in supporting Democratic Sen. Barack Obama in the presidential race Nov. 4, according to some early poll reports.

Exit poll data was still being compiled and analyzed Nov. 5, but early information showed 53 percent or 54 percent of Catholics supported Obama and 44 percent or 45 percent were for Republican Sen. John McCain. Of the total population, 52 percent of Americans voted for Obama and 46 percent for McCain.

By comparison, 52 percent of Catholics in 2004 supported Republican President George W. Bush and 47 percent voted for Democratic Sen. John Kerry. The total nationwide vote in 2004 was 55 percent for Bush and 44 percent for Kerry.

Final pre-election polls from battleground states showed there would likely be some differences between the Catholic vote and the overall vote in those states, however.

In Ohio, for instance, the state voted for Obama by a margin of 51 percent to 47 percent, with 97 percent of the vote tallied. In his final pre-election voter survey, pollster John Zogby pegged Ohio’s probable vote at 49 percent for Obama and 47 percent for McCain, with Catholics pulling more for McCain, with 51 percent for him and 44 percent for Obama.

In Nevada, Zogby’s pre-election poll was that 53 percent of all voters and 56 percent of Catholics would back Obama and 42 percent of all voters and 39 percent of Catholics would support McCain. The actual vote there was 55 percent for Obama and 43 percent for McCain, with no data yet on the Catholic vote.