For Immediate Release

Washington, D.C. — With the midterm elections coming up in the fall, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life has released a new Web feature, “Religion & Politics 2010,” which provides a variety of election resources for reporters, including:

CONTACT

Mary Schultz
Communications Manager
202.419.4556
mschultz@pewresearch.org/religion

  • Poll analyses and survey reports on topics related to the midterm elections
  • Links to news stories about religion-related issues impacting 2010 congressional and gubernatorial races around the country
  • “Election news briefs” highlighting interesting articles and common themes making news headlines
  • An interactive graphic illustrating the congressional voting intentions of major religious groups, which will be updated throughout the campaign season as new survey data become available
  • Links to Pew Research Center publications — legal backgrounders, analyses and polls — examining the attitudes of major religious groups on issues such as same-sex marriage, the environment and abortion

“Religion & Politics 2010” currently features a Pew Forum analysis of recently released 2008 exit poll data. The new data, released to the public in May 2010 through the Roper Public Opinion Archives, allow a deeper examination of voting patterns than was previously possible, breaking the electorate into smaller religious groups while also examining frequency of attendance at religious services, racial or ethnic identity, age, income and other factors. The exit polls were conducted by the National Election Pool, a consortium of news organizations consisting of ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, NBC News and The Associated Press.

The Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life conducts surveys, demographic analyses and other social science research on important aspects of religion and public life in the U.S. and around the world. As part of the Washington-based Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy organization, the Pew Forum does not take positions on any of the issues it covers or on policy debates.