Last night I was talking to my girlfriend’s niece (who live in Rhode Island, if that makes any difference). She was talking about Tuesday’s primary election, and said that the place where she needs to vote is in a church basement. “That is so illegal!”, she exclaimed. “How can they get away with that?” I began to explain it to her, when I realized that I have no explanation. The more I thought about it, the more questions it raised for me.
So… How CAN they get away with that?
Well, it only discriminates against vampires, near as I can tell, and even then, so long as they don’t touch any crosses or drink the water, they should be fine.
I don’t see what the problem is. It’s the basement, for gosh sake, not the sanctuary, and most church basements I’ve been in have tended to be bland, not-particularly-religiously-oriented social halls. As long as there’s no proselytizing going on (was there?) and no one’s trying to influence your vote, which would be illegal, seems like a neutral enough space to me.
My ward in Providence has three polling places – two firehouses and a school. But if my polling place was in the basement of the Baptist church down the street, I wouldn’t take it amiss.
I don’t see that it raises any constitutional issues. By entering a part of the church which is not dedicated to worship, you aren’t taking part in any kind of religious activity, or supporting any kind of religion. Polling places can be any sort of building which is large enough and accessible enough for the purpose, and just used by the state on a temporary basis. Using the building does not imply that the state endorses the other activities that go on in the building on other days.
You might have a proplem if the oweners of the building were carrying on some political activity (e.g., had posters opposing abortion rights) in the polling place. But that’s not related to the building being a church building. You’d have the same problem if it was a school hall, and it had a poster saying “Increase funding for public education.” You should not have situation where only one side of a political debate can have their say in a polling place. But being in a church building does not necessarily mean that.
1st Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Basically, the First Amendment prevents the government from directly supporting a particular religion. In a situation like you describe, they are using the church basement as a public space - basically, the same as renting a private school’s gym. Unless the basement is plastered with Buddy Christ wallpaper or other ostentatious displays of faith, I wouldn’t see a problem.
Good question, and I don’t know the answer. I suppose that if they had a poster saying “A vote for Kerry is a vote for Satan”, that would be bad. Even a poster about abortion could be seen as some form of political coercion, in some peoples’ opinions. And some church basements do have such posters. Even if they are drawn by kids, they could count against neutrality. So I’m guessing that on election day, such things would have to come down.
My polling place has always been the activity room of a Methodist church. There’s only so many large buildings in our town. I suspect we can’t use either of the two schools seeing how voting goes on during school hours. I know another polling place is the relatively new rec center which is actually a PITA if you’re actually trying to use the rec center to exercise on election day.
Bangiadore is spot on. It’s not like we’re in the sancuary…
Many states have laws stating how far away the polling place must be from a bar or tavern. Since zoning regulations also limit how close a bar can be to a church, many churches remain as polling places.