Would the use of churches for early voting really have that much of an effect?  I thought early voting wasn't open on Sundays, and didn't stay open late enough to capture the mid-week, evening activities crowd.

Rick Hasen wrote:

Bob Bernstein wrote:

A related issue is the use of churches for early voting in states such
as TN (which is very, very common).  It is more a political strategy
issue than a separation issue.  It strikes me that the most likely
people to vote at such a location are members of that church.  They are
likely to be there for various other activities and also take out time
to vote.  Non-members have to make a special trip there to vote.  As
members of some of the churches are overwhelmingly more supportive of
one party than the other, it would seem advisable for parties to try to
place the early voting booths in as many of "their party's" churches as
possible.  I'm not sure how often parties make that attempt--or how
often politically active churches seek to become such a location.  There
are some concerns here about entanglement, if parties are trying to
enlist churches on their behalf and/or churches are trying to enlist the
state on behalf of churches' public agendas.  Still, I would be hard
pressed to argue excessive entanglement.  For me it is just an
interesting strategic question.
Bob Bernstein (bernsra@auburn.edu)