Protest Voting in Churches

Using data from Arizona's 2000 general election, Stanford University researchers determined that a polling place can influence how voters vote. The study is actually based on what psychologists call "priming," the notion that particular associations result in unconscious actions. In other words, you don't know you're being influenced — but you are.

Two courts have considered whether this practice violates the First Amendment, and both have concluded that it does not. The first court found no Establishment Clause violation where secular venues comprised the vast majority of polling places, polls were typically set up in non-consecrated portions of houses of worship, and various religions' houses of worship were represented. The second found no Free Exercise Clause violation where a regulation permitted those who objected to voting in a church to cast absentee ballots or to cast ballots at polling places in adjoining districts. Neither court's reasoning is especially clear, but case law suggests that churches (or other houses of worship) may be used as polling places only if the government offers reasonable alternatives to those who object to entering the house of worship that is their assigned polling place.

Allowing voting in a church is simply asking for trouble. Preachers just want to use it as an opportunity to proselytize voters or control the support or opposition of political issues. Churches that engage in political speech the rest of the year, Can't be expected to act nuetral during elections. If churches don't want free speech to take place on their property, they should not rent their facilities to the government for use as polling places. This is exactly why polling places ought to be located at religiously neutral sites. Polling places are always published in the newspaper prior to local elections. If a church is being used as a polling place in your area:

Attend the church being used for voting to try to document involvement in political issues.
Write a letter of complaint to your local representative.
Suggest secular alternatives like libraries, public schools, fire stations, malls, etc.
Seek legal assistance if the practice continues.