How Quakers Voted in the 2008 Election

I’ve finally finished compiling the statistics from the poll we conducted here last week. When I initially posted the survey it hadn’t dawned on me that it would be me who had to compile all of the data as well! That took quite awhile, especially since Math and using Excel aren’t Wess Daniels specialities. But alas, the results are in and I think you will all enjoy seeing the statistics. These results are based on the 181 participants who took the survey from November 6-10th, 2008 (if you have time you should visit the comments and read the variety of remarks offered as well). One glaring omission is age range. When it hit me that I left out that category I was really disappointed. Especially because other sources are making such a big deal about the younger Evangelical vote, and the youth vote more generally. So it’s a pretty big boo-boo on my part. Otherwise, for a very simple little poll I feel pretty good about it and I hope you will find some useful data here.

If you have access to this week’s copy of Britian Yearly Meeting’s The Friendyou will find a short piece by me titled “The Plot Twists of 4 November” online as well. The article is a reflection not only on these polls and how they fit into our larger American context but also some of the historicity around the how the vote turned out.

Summary of Data:

Here are just a few of the basic things we learned from the poll, the slides below have much more information in them.

Who Turned Out to Vote:

  • Liberal – 46%
  • Evangelical – 26%
  • Beanite – 10%
  • Conservative – 7%
  • Independent – 6%
  • Other – 5%

Who Quakers Voted For:

  • Obama/Biden – 83%
  • McCain-Palin – 9%
  • Third-Party – 3%
  • No Vote b/c Faith – 3%
  • No Vote b/c personal – 2%

Top 5 Voting Issues:

  • War – 26%
  • Energy/Environment – 22%
  • Economics – 20%
  • Healthcare – 19%
  • Character – 14%

Basis of Faith for Voters:

(The three largest groups represented)

  • Christian – 132
  • Universalist – 23
  • Post-Christian – 12

Convergent Friends Who Voted:

  • Yes – 40%
  • No – 16%
  • A What? – 31%
  • No Answer – 13%

Quaker Voting Presentation

http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=quaker-voting-1226603247161886-8&rel=0&stripped_title=quaker-voting-presentation

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: quaker polls)

You can download the .pdf of this data here or the powerpoint of it here.
Feel free to ask questions, feedback or discuss (and analyze) the results below. Thanks again to everyone who participated.

2 responses to “How Quakers Voted in the 2008 Election”

  1. This is exciting information to have, Wess, as I've been approached by non-Quakers asking for political endorsements of issues and/or candidates and had to say, several times, that Quakers are not all Obama/Anti-Prop 8 supporters across the board and that I cannot speak for everyone. Though your graph depicts the leanings…heh.

    I'm glad for diversity in our group, and that Quakers come from many perspectives on issues and concerns.