It really galls me to have to go into a church to vote on election day.
But I imagine there are likely demographic units lacking a suitable public building.
Why? It’s just a building.
In the churches I’ve voted in, you’re not voting in a sanctuary anyway but in the lobby. I assume they pick whatever centrally located non-profit or municipal building is available and willing.
In general you may be right but that isn’t always the case. I live in a high rise condo building and my polling place is in my building lobby.
Yeah, I know some places have them in commercial structures but that seems to be much less common than civic centers, YMCAs and churches.
My polling place is the Masonic Lodge in Fenton MO. Because the parking is so godawful, I asked a volunteer a few years back how the Lodge got selected since there’s the government center (with lovely parking) a few hundred yards away. Answer: the Lodge offered their services. The volunteer told me that a lot of the volunteer workers were Masons too, so that probably factored in to them offering the Lodge.
Generally, your local board of elections or whatever it is called in your jurisdiction is going to be responsible for finding polling places. In Ohio I believe, but I don’t have the legal cite in front of me, that schools and other public buildings are required to allow their use as polling places if requested. Where possible that has been moved away from, security concerns. Which is a shame as I think kids learn something from seeing all those adults coming in to vote.
Churches make for good polling locations. Historically, every town has a church and it may even doubled as the town hall and school. It may have been the only large open indoor space in some places. Now days, it is a large building with open spaces, modern utilities, and is largely unused during a weekday. As an agnostic who believes in a sharp division of church and state, I don’t have a problem with the use of churches as polling locations. There are few better alternatives.
Where I grew up in Texas, schools were used. And for the election I worked as a poll official in Hawaii, my site was an elementary school up in the Manoa Valley.
There’s a story in today’s Chicago Tribune, but it’s behind a registration wall. Local boards of elections look for disabled access, room for the necessary tables and machines, and public character. In Cook County today, we have some in furniture stores, beauty parlors, and restaurants. In the exurbs, sometimes they’re in people’s houses.
I agree, but some do not. There is a small brewpub in Pittsburgh called Church Brew Works. The Catholic Church sold the building, but then sent in someone to say prayers and get god out of the building.
My polling place in suburban Cook County used to be in the garage of someone’s house. About a decade ago, they consolidated my precinct with another one, and my polling place is now at the local Catholic school.
Not in my opinion. But I’m used to my opinion not mattering!
On second thought, I’d be quite surprised if a majority of church/templegoers agreed that their church/temple was “just a building”.
God was hanging around for happy hour? Must have been some holy spirits in there.
As a Catholic, the only part of the church building I’m worried about from a religious standpoint is the main sanctuary* with the pews and altar. The rest of it is administrative and about as holy in my eyes as the water department counter at city hall.
I’ve never seen a polling place in the sanctuary but I won’t rule out that it’s ever happened.
*Maybe there’s a better name for this place but my art history class where we had to memorize all the names of church building components was twenty years ago.
Eh. When I’ve voted in a church, everything took place in administrative sections — you’d hardly be able to tell they were churches. I’m not sure I understand why this should be a big deal for anyone.
Not sure how “big” of a deal it is, but I greatly dislike many aspects of nearly all organized religions, and consider my life to be better the less contact I have with them.
The church in question was a “Church of the Nazarene”, and voting took place in a gym.
I would greatly prefer not to have to step foot on church property in order to vote on election day. It is simply a personal opinion of mine - no reason you should share it.
I acknowledge that if this really were big deal for me, then I could have voted early. Just strikes me that there are plenty of “public” buildings which could serve as polling places - schools, libraries, town/village/city halls, courthouses, park districts, maintenance facilities, county/state/federal facilities,etc. Seems it might make more sense to welcome citizens to vote in a facility supported by taxes, rather than one which is exempt from taxation and is allowed to discriminate.
Well, I understand you feel strongly enough about organized religion to have some reticence. FWIW, though, there are tradeoffs to be made in selecting polling locations: there’s nearly always a conveniently-located church, they’re nonprofit, and unlike schools and other public buildings they’re usually not doing anything else on a Tuesday. Since selection as a polling station doesn’t offer material support to the religious activities of the church, there doesn’t seem to be much non-ideological reason to eschew them. It seems so, well, practical that I can’t suppose it’ll change until such a time as a groundswell of public opinion turns against organized religion.
(My muslim brother-in-law is in Senegal at the moment, but I understand that he has a religious-based reluctance to enter a Christian church. I’ll have to ask him what he’d feel about voting in one.)
Schools, libraries, town/village/city halls, courthouses, park districts, maintenance facilities, county/state/federal facilities,etc. are usually in use on election days. Churches and a few other facilities (like, the masonic lodge I was at), are not. so I’d think churches would be preferable as polling places, if only because the election won’t be as disruptive to their routine.
Couldn’t they just post an eviction notice? Or are you in one of those states with strong squatter rights if the occupant won’t leave?
I remember ages ago voting on Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood, CA in a store that sold bongs and porn!
They had a screen set up so you couldn’t see their “wares” on the other side of the store but everyone from the neighborhood thought this was a hysterically funny location to go vote. Especially amusing when you saw the little old ladies peeking behind the screen to see what was up behind there…
I’d like to see some precinct set up the polling place at a mosque, just to watch the exploding wingnut heads.
One can only hope! 
That would be GREAT! So I guess this kinda gets back to the original question - do local election boards decide which groups to approach and ask if they would be willing to serve as polling places, or do they invite organizations to offer their facilities?
I can well imagine a non-christian facility wishing to serve as a polling place, to show that they are a part of this democracy. What if a mosque asked to serve as a polling place. Could the elections board simply say “Thanks, but no thanks. The christian church next door works just fine.”?
My wife goes to school up in Skokie - I’m sure synagogues serve as polling places up there. But I can’t recall ever hearing of a non-judeochristian place of worship serving as a polling place in my years in and around the Chicago area. (As a kid in Chicago, the machines were set up in the precinct captain’s basement. Probably had the votes already keted in as well! ;))
And I understand that public facilities are being used on election days. Which I offer is a good thing. While hosting polling would create some inefficiencies, I’d suggest it would serve the benefit of bringing citizens in touch with the entities they directly support - and vice versa.