Exit Polls Remain Skewed towards Republicans on Religion
Wed Feb 06, 2008 at 09:54:51 AM PDT
Despite a drumbeat of public criticism by Faith in Public Life and others about biased exit polling on religion by the major media networks, the exit polls continue to ask more questions about religion to Republicans than Democrats.
I wrote yesterday in my "Dispatches from the Beltway" column in the debut issue of Religion Dispatches about this bias distorts our understanding of religion among both parties. I've posted the updated tally here.
Here's the current tally:
- 25 states have had both Republican and Democratic primaries
- 20 of these states had state-wide exit polls
- 6 of these exit polls (30%) asked more questions about religious affiliation to Republicans than Democrats. (One of these, AZ, was a Super Tuesday state).
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Upshot about the major media exit poll bias:
- They have asked Republicans about religion in every exit poll, but they have NOT asked Democrats ANYTHING about religion in 3 states (IA, MI, NV).
- They have asked Republicans about whether they were "evangelical or born again" in 4 states (AZ, IA, NH, NV), but they have NOT asked Democrats ANYWHERE about whether they were "evangelical or born again."
- And in 6 states (30%) they asked Republicans MORE questions about religion than they asked Democrats.
It's time for the media to update their script and give us balanced coverage of the role of religion in both parties.
