Correction Catholics who are so identified by the Pope and the official Catholic Church, voted 54% for Obama.
"The Pope and the official Catholic Church" don't spend their days "identifying" Catholics. They have better things to do. Neither does the Church keep a list of who is and who is not a Catholic nor does it issue a membership card which identifies the carrier as officially Catholic with the Pope's signature and valid stamp.
There's a good reason for that.
It's because being Catholic entails interior assent to certain beliefs and the living out of those beliefs on a daily basis. Obviously, that's something that God can very well keep track of but it's a little difficult for mere mortals.
Individual parishes keep historical records of who was baptized, who was married, who died etc, but you'll appreciate that this is not quite the same thing and it's not a job for "the Pope and the official Catholic Church". The office workers take care of it and says nothing about adherence to those tenets of faith which the Church professes.
Unless you can show proof that the self-identified Catholics who respond to exit polls all present officially stamped memberships by the Pope and the Catholic Church, A.A. Cunningham's description is the only accurate one.
The following is from the Catholic News Agency. You might find this interesting:
“Exit polls are reporting that more weekly churchgoing Catholics voted for John McCain than for President-elect Barack Obama, slightly favoring McCain by 50 percent to 49 percent.
Those who attend Mass on a weekly basis comprised 46 percent of the overall Catholic vote, while 54 percent of Catholics surveyed said they attend less than weekly. Among infrequent Mass goers, Obama was favored 58 to 40 percent.
The fact that practicing Catholics supported McCain over Obama runs contrary to assertions made by Fr. Thomas Reese S.J. and other commentators who used the category of Catholics who attend Mass less than weekly to suggest that the teaching of Catholic bishops was ignored by the faithful.
Overall, Catholics favored Obama 54 to 45 percent, according to an Edison Media Research exit poll conducted for CNA. In 2004 George W. Bush won the Catholic vote over John Kerry, 52 to 47 percent.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/churchgoing_catholics_chose_mccain_over_obama/