The Hill News

President Barack Obama continues to lead Mitt Romney among the general electorate and independent voters, but the presumptive Republican nominee earns more than three times as many white evangelical voters as the incumbent according to a new poll from the Public Religion Research Institute.

According to the poll, Romney earns nearly seven in 10 â€" 68 percent â€" of white evangelicals, versus just 19 percent for President Obama. That's far below the national average, where the president leads Romney 47 percent to 38 percent, and far more dramatic than the candidates' performance among other religious demographics.

“The survey signals that white evangelical Protestant voters are moving beyond the reservations they may have held earlier in the campaign about Romney’s Mormon faith,” said Dr. Robert P. Jones, PRRI CEO, in a statement. “While two-thirds of white evangelical voters say that it is generally important that a presidential candidate share their religious beliefs, their differences with Romney on religion are not translating into a significant lack of support at the ballot box.”

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