While Barack Obama received equal or higher support among nearly every religious group in comparison with John Kerry in 2004, his largest gains (8 percentage points) were seen among those who are unaffiliated with any particular religion; fully three-quarters (75%) of this group supported Obama. Religiously unaffiliated voters went Democratic in the previous two elections, but supported Al Gore (61%) and Kerry (67%) by smaller margins. The unaffiliated made up 11% of the electorate, up from 10% in 2004 and 9% in 2000. Read More

Russell Heimlich  is a former web developer at Pew Research Center.