Grumpy

I just read this article... after returning from voting at a church in my local election.

This isn't a fight I'd want to take on. Churches are just another building, as far as election officials are concerned. They have plenty of parking, they're usually handicap-accessible, and they're centrally located within the precinct.

Ordinarily, I don't even glance up enough to see what's on the walls. I did today; saw a bulletin board. I think it had the word 'Christian' on it.

ajm51987

Thats why abseente ballot is the way to go!

Krieger

I have to vote in a church, and they have this billboard out in front of the church that always says something religious/political. The latest one says, "True peace comes from God" (a religious right response to anti-war protesters).

Edit: and back last June (after the Newdow case) those fuckers put a big "ONE NATION UNDER GOD" poster on their church.

Grumpy

...Like that softie, Pope John Paul II. What a damn hippie.

lisarea

Do they violate the buffer zone laws when they're acting as a polling place?

If so, narc on them. What would happen if someone violated that? Would the votes not be counted, or what?

If not, I guess you just have to rearrange the letters on the marquee to read "Undead Nitrogen Noon" or "On to Gender Union Ad"

never been there

But if you're not a Xian, isn't a church just a building with some gory wooden decorations?

In provincial elections, my polling station is in a synagogue, but in the social hall, not in the presence of the Torah, so they don't ask people to cover their heads. The only courtesy the synagogue asked was that when the parties deliver sandwiches for the scrutineers' dinner they not include pork. Butter on the roast beef sandwich didn't bother them. The benefit of counting ballots for a left-wing party is that I got to have hummus, which doesn't dry out like meat does.

In Toronto, they even use people's homes, which is more questionable since the homeowners volunteer through their parties, making them partisan locations.

atheist_in_foxhole

Quote:

''People are being forced to go to a religious setting to perform the most basic civic function,'' said Annie Laurie Gaylor, cofounder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation in Madison, Wis., an educational group working for the separation of state and church. ''Asking a feminist to vote in a Roman Catholic church is like asking a black man to vote in a KKK hall. You are being told to go somewhere that espouses beliefs that are antithetical to your own.''

Ha! I have a feeling that the Catholics in Boston aren't going to appreciate this uppity atheist comparing the Holy Church with the KKK.

Beetle

I live in a small town north of Boston, and have to vote in the local catholic church. It's never really bothered me (and in my devout stage of life I wasn't catholic). I've voted in schools before, and much prefer the church. I think it's just a matter of logistics. Less hassle at an empty church than voting at a school that's in session.
I don't think most catholics in this area are willing to lift so much as a finger to defend the church these days. The diocese just refused a $35,000 because it came from the lay-group Voice of the Faithful, which helped blow the whistle on the sex abuse scandal.

nogods4me

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
ROTFLMAO


Oh crap I just spit water all over my keyboard. Do these folks think they are fooling anyone?

JGL53

I would agree that this is a non-issue, as long as there is no obvious attempt to recruit.

My polling place is the rec hall of a Methodist church that is within walking distance from my house. I've not noticed any religious signs or posters on the walls there. But Methodists are somewhat higher on the food chain in terms of intelligence than the majority baptists.

I haven't heard any reports on the many baptist churches that are used as polling places here in MS, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that some or many of them put up posters (with religious messages) on their walls in an attempt to recruit.