Elkhart County's Anti-LGBTQ+ Election Day 2020
November 2020
This is a follow-up to our earlier story about the election locations in Elkhart County, when we found several infractions of election rules.
Studies show that where people vote has an effect on how they vote. Despite NIA raising concerns about how voting in churches affects the outcome of elections, Elkhart County continues to use churches as polling places—even adding a new church to the list.
A new polling location this presidential election was the Goshen Church of Christ, an anti-gay church in Goshen, Indiana. Their sign on election day read “ALL LIES MATTER REV 21:8 WWW.GOSHENCOC.COM.” Revelations 21:8 reads, “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
In October of 2004, The Advocate Report ran a story about the church titled “Vandals for gay marriage.” Here is the text from that article:
The Reverend Brad Price was only trying to help opponents of same-sex marriage "express themselves" to lawmakers when he posted the link to an antigay Web site on his church's sign. A state ban on gay marriage smiled over a partisan dispute in the Indiana house earlier this year. But a group of vandals kept getting in Price's way. On three separate occasions in the month of August they broke open the sign case in front of the Goshen Church of Christ in Goshen, Ind., and removed the word "no" from "www.nogaymarriage.com." The church has since removed the URL.
You might be wondering whether they’ve changed their position on gay marriage since 2004. Here are some current video sermons from the Goshen Church of Christ showing they are still very much anti-LGBTQ, anti-abortion, anti-atheist, and anti-evolution. Churches have every right to preach positions on social issues, but once they do, they are no longer impartial locations where our government should be hosting polling locations.
Voter intimidation is defined under the law as the use of threats, coercion, or attempts to intimidate for the purpose of interfering with the right of another person to vote or to vote for the person of their choosing. Hosting a polling location in such a divisive church is clearly intimidating for marginalized voters. We should not in any way tolerate intimidation or suppression of votes in Elkhart County.
So why does the Elkhart County Election Board have such close relationships with local churches? Let's look at the members of the board: Wayne Kramer is also the Treasurer of the First Presbyterian Church, which is an early voting location and polling location during elections. Daniel B. Grimes is also the Vice President of Advancement and Enrollment at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), a polling location during elections. The third and final member is the board secretary, Chris Anderson, who is also the Elkhart County Clerk.
At the October 7 Election Board meeting, Anderson said in an obvious response to our first story and ongoing concerns, "We are in some private spaces, those being the churches that we utilize. On Election Day, they become public spaces because they are no longer a church; they are a polling location." NIA disagrees. Why does the government allow Christian propaganda in our public spaces? Why does the government allow the church to advertise in our public spaces? Why does the government allow the church to promote their messages in our public spaces? And why do we allow church members unfettered access to the general public on election day?
An argument we've heard from government officials is that the churches aren’t getting paid for these services, so it makes sense to use them. They may not get paid monetarily, but the churches capitalize on having people in their buildings, and the optics of the government setting up shop inside a church lends them credibility and status. They use that credibility and status to market and recruit. The traffic our government pushes through the doors of churches on election day is more valuable than any amount of money they could charge.
Our neighbors in St. Joseph County removed all of their church locations and are now using public schools, giving kids election day off of school, which gives them an opportunity to join their parents in witnessing voting. When will the Elkhart County Election Board do the same?
We encourage you to contact the Elkhart County Election Board by phone 574.535.6469 or by email canderson@elkhartcounty.com and let them know you think this is an issue. We’ve supplied text below for you to use as a jumping off point in your correspondence. Personalize it as you see fit.
Subj: Elkhart County Voting Locations
I am emailing today to express my concern about polling locations in churches. I am not comfortable voting inside of a church and request that you remove all voting locations in Elkhart County from churches. Numerous reports have concluded that voting in churches affects the outcome of the vote, and I do not believe that Elkhart County’s continued reliance on religious facilities as polling sites represents an adequate separation between church and state. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
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