The North Carolina Board of Elections upheld the practice of voting in church facilities, turning down a challenge by the legal arm of the American Humanist Association, the Appignani Humanist Legal Center.
The decision comes amid a heated battle over voting rights and at a time when several states have already passed tougher restrictions on who can vote, where they can vote, and what types of proof of citizenship are acceptable.
The request was made in a May 31 letter sent by Appignani Humanist Legal Center Director William J. Burgess to the State Board of Elections Executive Director Gary O. Bartlett.
The letter cited the Establishment Clause in the U.S. Constitution, mandating a separation of church and state, as the reason voting in church houses should cease.
“Polling places should be neutral locations that are welcoming to all voters,” Burgess told the AFRO. “When churches take public stances on political issues, such as marriage equality or abortion, they are no longer neutral.”
The matter was brought to the forefront following the May 8 election centered around repealing a ban on gay marriage, Amendment One.
Citizens voted to keep the measure in place, but proponents for same-sex marriage say signs and materials dispersed by churches that doubled as polling places had unjustified influence.
Burgess says that while “no one is ‘forced’ to vote in a church, no one should be made to feel like a second class citizen because they have to use an alternate voting procedure to avoid voting in a place that should not be a polling place in the first place.”
The signs and literature read in the short time spent at a voting site could hold more weight, according to Burgess, than the campaign messages Americans are bombarded with for months leading up to Election Day.
“Scientific studies have shown that the voting environment, including religious iconography and messages, has a significant subconscious effect on voting decisions,” said Burgess. “Voters who are exposed to it in the polling place are swayed towards religious views of political issues.”
