What would having a Mormon in the White House mean for America?

Al Jazeera tries to answer that question by looking at the challenges Mitt Romney has convincing some voters his faith would not unduly influence his decision making as president.

Richard Hinckley, an emeritus member of the LDS Church's General Authority, says there would not be discussions between a President Romney and LDS church leaders over policy. "It won't happen," he says. "First of all he's too smart to do that. Secondly, our leaders are far too smart to engage in that."

Romney has done his best to avoid all discussion of his Mormon faith in the 2012 race. According to Phil Barlow, a professor of religion at Utah State University who was a counselor to Romney when he was a bishop in the Boston area, Romney and his campaign regard any speech about his faith as a "lose, lose situation".

Pollster Robert Jones, head of the Public Religion Research Institute in Washington, DC, argues that Romney has a more difficult challenge than Kennedy did in 1960. "In 1960 it was enough to say I believe in the separation of church and state," Jones says. "Today the American public does really want to see, 'Okay that's great. But what will you be doing with your faith?... I think that's the question Romney is still working his way toward answering."