Fifth of voters say they won't back Mormon

• Tweet

PRINCETON, N.J., June 20 (UPI) -- While the majority of Americans say they'd vote for their party's presidential nominee if that person is a Mormon, more than a fifth wouldn't, a poll indicates.

That 22 percent of Americas say they wouldn't vote for a candidate because the candidate's a Mormon is significant so far in this election cycle since Republican Party front-runner Mitt Romney is an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly called the Mormon church, results released by Gallup Monday indicate.

Also, another Mormon, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, may enter the race for the GOP nomination as early as next week.

About 20 percent of Republicans and independents said they would not support a Mormon for president, slightly lower than 27 percent of Democrats saying the same, the Princeton, N.J., polling agency said.

The biggest gap in opposition to voting for a Mormon for president is by educational level, with adults who did not attended college more resistant than those with at least some college experience, the poll indicated.

Results are based nationwide telephone interviews conducted with 1,020 adults June 9-12. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.