Secular 'values voters' are becoming an electoral force By (0) A Board of Elections volunteer assists a man as he casts his votes on the first day of early voting in Medina, Ohio on October 6. File Photo by Aaron Josefczyk/UPI | License Photo But much less attention has been paid to one of the largest growing demographics among the U.S. electorate, one that has increased from around 5% of Americans to over 23% in the last 50 years: "Nones" -- that is, the nonreligious. Advertisement I am a scholar of secularism in the United States, and my focus is on the social and cultural presence of secular people -- nonreligious people such as atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers and those who simply don't identify with any religion. They are an increasingly significant presence in American society, one which inevitably spills into the political arena.