25th Annual Student Research Conference
Influences of Religious Culture on Voting Patterns in Rural Missouri and Iowa
Faith L. Martin
Dr. Amber Johnson and Dr. Bonnie Mitchell, Faculty Mentors
Many in the media point a finger at religious groups for influencing the results of elections in the United States. However, most do not source any information citing a correlation between the two. In order to better understand this phenomenon, voting results from the president election in 2000 were collected and analyzed from rural counties in Missouri and Iowa, along with the religious populations from each county. Statistical software was used to find correlations between the two variables. This analysis did result in statistically significant correlations between Protestant populations and votes for George W. Bush and Catholic populations and votes for Al Gore. From this evaluation, there is evidence that a correlation may exist between voting patterns and religious populations.
Keywords: catholic, protestant, voting, rural, Missouri, Iowa, religion, politics
Topic(s):Anthropology
Sociology
Philosophy & Religion
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 304-1
Location: MG 2001
Time: 1:00