Poll: McCain favored among church-goers

PRINCETON, N.J., Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Sen. John McCain dominates Sen. Barack Obama among U.S. voters who attend church services weekly, results of Gallup poll released Wednesday indicated.

The presumptive Republican presidential candidate held a 53 percent-to-37 percent margin over his likely Democratic challenger among weekly church-goers, pollsters from the Princeton, N.J., firm said.

Among those who indicated they seldom or never attended church, Obama lead McCain, 54 percent to 34 percent.

In addition to faring better among those who attend church frequently, McCain, the U.S. senator from Arizona is preferred by those who said religion is important to them. Conversely, the Illinois senator does well among those who indicate religion is not important.

Among whites, McCain lead Obama among those who attend church weekly, while Obama was favored among whites who seldom or never attend church.

Results are based on telephone interviews conducted Aug. 11-17 with 6,228 registered voters and 5,202 non-Hispanic white registered voters. The margin of error for both the overall sampling and the subset sampling is plus or minus 2 percentage points.