Discussion: Mosque Prez: Florida Pol 'Surrendered To Bigotry' In Relocating Polling Site

Moving the polling place from the mosque is fine as long as they move polling places from any and all churches, temples, etc.

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I’m waiting to see this in Carl Hiaasen’s next novel.

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Polling places should be, well, polling places.

Places of worship, schools, and the like should not be places you go to vote.

City Hall, fine. Any other public building, fine.

But places like schools and churches (regardless of the type) have been proven time and time again to skew the votes held therein.

I wish I believed that the FBI and local enforcement were investigating this. Because domestic terrorism is kinda serious business, and telling someone you’re going to call in a bomb threat about a polling place is exactly that.

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As a buddhist, I didn’t particularly like going to a christian church to vote. But I voted anyway. I do note that in my state it would be illegal to offer food or any other tangible benefit to attract voters.

Well sure. We can’t have people LEARNING anything when they go to a polling place. You need to maintain your bigotry at all times!

They planned to serve deserts and snacks and set out chairs for older voters waiting in line.

Deserts??? “Thank you for voting. Here is your complimentary bucket of sand.”

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This just makes my blood boil. If I lived in the county I’d be tempted to seek a injunction denying all houses of worship serve as polling places.

There are plenty of public schools everywhere to meet these needs.

Here’s a question: How much does the county clerk’s office pay a church for the use of their building for an election day? I doubt the answer is zero.

It’s illegal for an interested party, candidate or a political party. But I can’t imagine it would illegal for a non-political body to treat everyone equally.

Citations, please?

Not to diminish the involvement of racism, but I wonder if other factors are also at work. I can see some hack operative making a few despicable calls to the registrar of voters, in an effort to remove the polling location from the proximity of the adjacent Florida Atlantic University. Students tend to vote more progressive, but may not travel two miles to the new site.

Push the “bigot” button and block a few more votes on the left.

I don’t know about Florida, but in my city there is a voting place every few blocks. In two miles, I would pass six or seven.

I bet the families of the Victims of the San Benandino massacre by Muslims or the gay massacre in Orlando by a Muslim maniac would be reluctant to vote in a mosque! TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT!

Muslims are not a race, neither are Mexicans. So the dog whistle howl of liberals calling Donald Trump a racist is uneducated and a LIE. Oddly enough, according to the US Census Bureau, 87 percent of Mexicans identify as White. And just like men born with penises can identify as girls, we should respect the Mexicans’ self identification. So changing the polling place CAN NOT involve racism, because race is not an issue! Bigoted? Perhaps.

Time and time again? I think you are making it up.

I’ve voted in all sorts of places from paint and tile merchants to churches (including some kind of Jehovah Witness meeting hall sort of thing). My vote has not been influenced. If anything it gives me the chance to be nosey and see what’s inside of places I don’t normally visit.

The secretary of state has made a decision based on prejudices that are close and dear to their confederate heart!

Nope, I had this come up twice at voting precincts and it had to be kicked upstairs to the Election Deputies and lawyers. At one early voting site in a community center, they rescheduled their monthly barbeque for the day of early voting. It was eventually decided that it was illegal to entice people to the voting site with a reward of free food. By the time this decision was made, voting was halfway over, and the Officials very nearly decided to shut down the voting site early. It was also decided that it would be proper to prosecute the site operators for election tampering, but (until recently, at least) it was considered bad form to prosecute election fraud when it was all done with good intentions.

So a compromise was made, the food would have to be moved far away from the voting area. They would have to make it very clear the the food would be given to anyone who wanted it, not just voters. And then the site was permanently removed from the list of voting sites and no voting would ever be held there again in future years. So that kind of backfired for them. The community center wanted to get out the vote in their community, and as a result, there would never be early voting in that community center again.

I also saw this happen during a campus voter registration drive. I was inside a campus building running an early voting site. I went outside for a break and I saw a student Republican organization with a table and a sign asking people to register to vote, and they’d get a free bag of M&Ms. We told them very clearly, put away the M&Ms and get rid of the sign offering them to people who register, it is illegal to offer any tangible reward for registering or voting.

This is basic election law. In the olden days, political bosses used to offer money or beer to people who voted. Until very recently, some states prohibited the sale of alcohol on election day, and this is one reason why.

Now I did notice the community center in the story described how they would offer chairs to elderly people waiting. This is not a tangible benefit so it would be legal. I suppose you could offer other useful but non-enticing items like a drink of water (but not if it had tea or flavorings). Water (or seats in a waiting room, or bathrooms for that matter) are mere public conveniences.

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Oklahoma’s liquor stores are still closed on election days.