I’m unclear on why you continue to focus just on Utah. You made a blanket statement about Mormon voters, which I assumed meant nationwide. Are you saying that in a Primary, Mormon voters tend to vote for Mormons over non-Mormons (which I agree with), but in the general they will vote anyway, even if there is not a Mormon running? If they were true “Mormon-only” voters, wouldn’t they have all written in Romney on the Presidential ticket or not voted at all?
Shall I recount for you the MANY FReepers who have said they will vote for almost anybody vs. Obama? Isn't that a similar "general" statement re: FReepers?
There were some Lds voters who didn't vote for the McCain-Palin ticket, right? There will be some FREEPERS who won't vote for Romney if he is the nominee, right? Where's the lack of a parallel?
I’m unclear on why you continue to focus just on Utah
It's the best example we have, being 60% Lds. But there's four other Western states with significant Lds populations: Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, AZ. (And CO also has a fairly high total).
* Wyoming & Nevada both went caucus style. Who did they select? (Romney) [Nevada is 8% Lds & I would say at least 1 out of 6 or 1 out of 7 GOP voters in Nevada is Lds]
* Colorado also has a significant Mormon population due to its proximity to Utah. It too, went Romney.
* The reason why AZ (8% Lds) went McCain was because that was McCain's home state. Even then, McCain couldn't even get half of his home state because Romney got 35% of the AZ vote as again I believe Lds voters were probably 1 in 6 of the GOP total. Also, AZ was the one state that I saw FREEPERS have specific exit poll data in '08 showing that 95% of AZ Mormons voted for Romney.
* Idaho also went McCain, but that was because Romney by then had dropped out.