Evangelical Christians made their voices heard on Election Day as moral issues like gay marriage and stem-cell research catapulted to the foreground of the campaign.

Once polls had closed Nov. 2, 11 states approved bans on gay marriage, and one western Iowa district judge, who was criticized for dissolving a civil union between a gay couple, was barely retained.

In western Iowa, precincts recorded turnout rates typically around 73 percent or higher. Historically, that region of Iowa — which counts many evangelical Christians in its population — has had low turnout rates.

Kim Conger, assistant professor of political science, said evangelical Christians have been important in tipping the vote in past elections, including the 1994 mid-term election when Republicans swept the U.S. House of Representatives.

However, Conger said, the issue of gay marriage was only important as part of a larger group of issues known ambiguously as moral issues.

Iowa Sen. Ken Veenstra, R-Orange City, said the high turnout rates were enough to outpace other areas — like eastern Iowa, where the population is more dense and heavily Democratic — by 13,791 votes overall.

Veenstra, who wrote a proposed amendment to the Iowa Constitution defining marriage between a man and woman, said one of the reasons so many ardent Christians turned out this year is because they saw the country had “fallen into a state of ill repute.”

“People are beginning to realize if we don’t stand firm for fundamental values, our country will crumble,” Veenstra said. “Moral issues in general have gained a heightened awareness.”

State Rep. Dwayne Alons, R-Hull, said despite the fact that there was already a 1998 law on the books defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, it was important to have amendments, both nationally and locally, because there needed to be a strict standard.

Lately, Alons said, judges have been using the dispute to legislate from the bench.

Earlier in the year, District Judge Jeffrey Neary dissolved a civil union between a lesbian couple in Sioux City, which caused a fervor among western Iowa family activists.

“We feel there was no definition of a civil union in the state,” Alons said. “By terminating [the civil union], we feel it is very important we stay within the rule of the law.”

Alons’ son Kevin headed up the Judicial Accountability Group, a watchdog organization that spearheaded an attempt to unseat the judge.

“Personally, I’m really disappointed by the results,” said Andy Hoernecke, treasurer for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Ally Alliance.

Hoernecke said he wasn’t surprised by the number of states that approved gay marriage bans. He said the issue had caused many people to vote against civil union as a measure of fear.

Newly elected State Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, D-Ames, said she didn’t know if the marriage issue would come up in the January legislative session, especially with the near-even party makeup of the Legislature.

Wessel-Kroeschell said the Democratic caucus would be meeting this weekend for the first time to discuss what would be on the agenda for the upcoming session.

Republicans claim a one-seat lead in the House, 51-49, and share leadership with Democrats in the Senate, 25-25.

Alons said he didn’t think it would be possible to push for another amendment in the upcoming session,.