In an earlier posting today I said that Romney’s Mormon faith was “causing little stir among most voters.” It’s a bit more complicated than that according to USA Today/Gallup polls. In short, Romney may not have a hard time pulling in money from wealthy households and the corporate sector, but voters in general would have an easier time voting for women and blacks than for Mormons.

USA Today polling shows this:

A Mormon candidate

• Most likely to be “completely comfortable”
College graduates (no post-graduate work) 72%
$75,000+ annual income 68%
Catholics 67%
Live in the West 67%

• Least likely to be “completely comfortable”
Attend church at least weekly 53%
No college 51%
Annual income of less than $30,000 50%
Blacks 45%

Source: USA TODAY/Gallup Polls of 2,016 adults taken Feb. 9-11 and March 2-4. Margin of error varies by group, ranging from 3 to 9 percentage points.

Or look at the answers to this survey question. Seems like there’s been some recent polarization on this matter of Mormonism. See how the % of No jumps up? It was easier to say that Mormonism didn’t matter to your decision when no Mormon was running for President.

Question: Between now and the 2008 political conventions, there will be discussion about the qualifications of presidential candidates — their education, age, religion, race, and so on. If your party nominated a generally well-qualified person for president who happened to be one of the following, would you vote for that person?

Mormon
Yes No No opinion
2007 Feb 9-11 72 24 4
1999 Feb 19-21 79 17 4
1967 Apr 19-24 75 17 8

Black
2007 Feb 9-11 94 5 1
1999 Feb 19-21 95 4 1
1967 Apr 19-24 53 41 6

Woman
2007 Feb 9-11 88 11 1
1999 Feb 19-21 92 7 1
1967 Apr 19-24 57 39 4

Pew survey data below is similar. The Republicans most likely to vote for Romney make more than $75K a year, identify themselves as conservative, and attend church weekly or more.