Forced to Vote at Church with Anti-Choice Propaganda
Amy Murphy-DeMeo, 52, of Ormond Beach believes in freedom of speech and religion but thinks the church's political activism made it an inappropriate place to vote in Tuesday's election. "It's just the principle of the thing," she said. "I have a God-given, taxpayer right to vote without (the polling place) trying to influence me."
To uphold the separation of church and state, Murphy-DeMeo said the elections department should stop using churches for polling places. Imagine the outcry if voters had to vote at a mosque that put symbols of dead Iraqis on its front lawn, Murphy-DeMeo said. ...
Because the Department of Elections is just a "tenant" of the church, "we can't tell them what to do," McFall said. She said Murphy-DeMeo was the only person to complain Tuesday.
Source: Daytona Beach News-Journal
The location in question, Prince of Peace Catholic Church, had a display of rows of white crosses representing the death of fetuses due to abortion. They are accompanied by banners stating "Pray for the innocent ...4,000 babies aborted daily in the USA." The anniversary of Roe v. Wade had been a week earlier but the display was left out — perhaps they usually leave it out for a while and perhaps it was done with the election in mind.
Either way, they have a right to have displays on church property; voters, though, should have a right to vote in a neutral location where religious institutions are not able to push religious or political messages on them. Research indicates that such displays and locations influence what citizens vote for, and I wonder if perhaps that's part of the reason why politicians refuse to place polling stations in neutral locations.
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This brings to mind my reading of the days of the old political machines during the Gilded Age of the latter half of the 19th century — the Tammany Halls and such — that would have polling places in saloons, barber shops, and other such places in order to influence voters. Of course, this was before the days of the secret ballot (that would come with the Progressive era in the early 1900s) when precinct “workers” could watch you vote and report your “mistakes” to the appropriate agent of the local machine.
No political messages should ever be allowed at or near a polling station. Under California law (Elections Code 18370), “Electioneering may not be conducted within 100 feet of a polling place. ‘100 feet of a polling place’ means a distance of 100 feet from
the room or rooms in which voters are signing the Roster-Index and casting
ballots.” Signs posted outside the voting rooms indicate the 100-foot boundary.
I guess this is one area where Alabama is actually ahead of the curve. I’m not sure if this is statewide or not, but the area that I grew up in once had churches as polling places, but they eliminated them as such at least 15 years ago, going so far as to build purpose-build cinder block buildings in areas that didn’t have any appropriate buildings to use.
Gerald: The same rules apply here in TN.
It is illegal to vote in taverns.
I’ve gone though a similar situation. The place I am required to vote at is a Lutheran church right up the road from my house. Last November when Missouri was voting on Embryonic Stem Cell Research, I was given a pamphlet about how killing babies is wrong. This happened right outside the front door of the church. There was no way to avoid this woman. The pamphlet included pictures of fetuses who were subject to late trimester abortions (which in no way resemble 150-cell blastocysts that were the real issue on the ballot.) That type or propaganda makes me sick. I wanted to stand there and argue with her about her phony advertising, but I was busy so I took the pamphlet, looked at it briefly, and threw it in the trashcan right next to her.
I really can’t decide what’s more offensive: the fact that they rely on BS propaganda, or the fact that they can do this right at the front door of at a polling place.