Pew analysis: Mitt Romney pulls in fewer Mormon votes than Bush

Our take: According to a new Pew analysis, Republican Mitt Romney received a slightly smaller percentage of the Mormon vote than George W. Bush did in 2004, although Romney did see more of the Jewish vote than any recent GOP candidate.

"Some 80 percent of Mormons voted for Bush, while 78 percent voted for Romney, who is Mormon," U.S. News reported. "That's not to say Mormons weren't in Romney's corner this election. Pew points out that 78 percent means nearly 8 in 10 Mormons voted for Romney, while only 2 in 10 voted for Obama."

According to Pew, exit polling data for Mormons was not available in 2000 and 2008.

"It appears that Bush simply received more of the religious vote overall, garnering more of the Catholic and Protestant vote than Romney as well," the U.S. News report said. "Romney, however, received more of the Jewish vote than Bush or any recent GOP candidate, with 30 percent of Jewish voters casting ballots for Romney. Sixty-nine percent voted for Obama, a nine percentage point drop from 2008."

Religiously unaffiliated voters were firmly in Obama's corner in 2012, Pew said, coming in at 70 percent. More than six in ten voters who say they never attend religious services voted for Obama, while those who said they attended religious services a few times a month or year went for Obama over Romney by a 55 percent to 43 percent margin.

Read more about religious voting on The Pew Forum.