Exit polls: Alabama voters focus on candidates' faith, Mississippi voters want to beat Obama

Exit polls in the presidential primaries Tuesday show the Republican electorate in Alabama and Mississippi was heavily religious, with concerns among the economy and electability driving many voters to the polls.

More than 80 percent of Alabama voters said they were concerned about the direction that the economy was headed, with a similar number in Mississippi saying they were angry or dissatisfied with the federal government's reaction to the financial crisis.

In Alabama, more than 70 percent of voters in the state described themselves as evangelical, and nearly three-quarters said that a candidate's faith mattered a "great deal" or "somewhat." 

More than 70 percent of voters in Mississippi described themselves as evangelical, according to exit polls, and nearly eight in 10 said that a candidate's faith mattered a "great deal" or "somewhat."

And while the exit polls gave little insight into how Tuesday's election might play out - showing voters evenly split among the candidates, those who decided how they were voting recently tended to break for Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney, rather than Newt Gingrich. About a third of voters said they made up their minds in the past few days.

Two-thirds of voters in Alabama self-identified as Republicans, while 28 percent said they were independents and 6 percent were Democrats, the exit polling found.

As in the 2008 primary race, about 80 percent of Mississippi primary voters self-identify as Republican, with 17 percent calling themselves independent, and 4 percent aligning with Democrats.

Voters in Mississippi said that the top issue to them was nominating a candidate who could beat President Obama — and by a significant margin. The number of voters who put electability as their top choice nearly doubled those who voted based on experience, moral character or conservative values.

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