An investigation of the role of religion in the 1960 presidential election

Includes bibliographical references.Thesis. The basic thesis of this study was that John F. Kenned's religious affiliation resulted in a net gain for him in the electoral vote and a net loss in the popular vote. Procedure. Evidence from popular, religious, and scholarly publications was gathered to give a variety of viewpoints and attitudes on the religious issue. The pre-election polls, official election returns, post-election polls, and their analysis by professional public opinion researchers were surveyed. A local study on voting patterns in selected wards in the city of Chicago was also conducted to substantiate the find­ings of the professionals. Conclusions. Not since 1928, has the religion of one of the candidates been as important a factor in the outcome of a Presidential Election ae it was in I960. From the survey of the professional public opin­ion researcher’s studies and from the local study of selected wards in the city of Chicago, it can be concluded that John F. Kennedy's religious affiliation did, in fact, help him win the election. He won the election because he carried those states with large Catholic populations and large electoral counts. In these states it was the Catholic vote that was the difference between winning and losing. And Catholic voters shifted their vote sharply from preceding elec­tions in favor of Kennedy. However, it is also appar­ent that, on a national basis, he lost more popular votes than he gained.M.S. (Master of Science