A Florida Catholic parish's 45-year tradition of serving as a polling place for elections came to an end after Tuesday's primary after ongoing complaints by a handful of pro-abortion and pro-homosexual activists led church leaders to end their partnership with the Brevard County Board of Elections.
Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in Indialantic, FL, has hosted about 5,000 voters from three precincts in a multi-use area of the building that is separate from the main church.
Florida Today reported that the trouble began in 2008, when the church displayed a message on its marquee urging parishioners to vote for the state’s marriage protection amendment, which defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman. In 2012, the church reportedly displayed a similar message in support of an amendment seeking to ban taxpayer funding for abortions.
Local Democratic activist Vicki Impoco complained that she was removed from Holy Name’s property for waving a pro-Obama sign on election day in both 2008 and 2012.
“In 2008, for weeks preceding the election and on Election Day, Holy Name of Jesus displayed explicitly political anti-gay messages on their huge marquee as voters entered the compound to vote on constitutional Amendment 2 banning same-sex marriage,” Impoco complained in a letter to the editor. “In 2012, for weeks preceding the election and on Election Day, Holy Name of Jesus displayed explicitly political anti-choice messages on their huge marquee as voters entered the compound to vote on constitutional Amendment 6, also known as the Florida Abortion Amendment.”
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Impoco was also upset by the presence of a black granite memorial to the unborn present on the property near the polling station, which she called “the permanent fetus monument.” The memorial reads: “All life is sacred…born and unborn…Respect Life.”
Impoco worried that the presence of the pro-life memorial and the church’s public advocacy for life and family could sway some voters, giving the pro-life, pro-family cause an unfair advantage. “I'm not against God or religion, I'm just for fairness and following the law,” Impoco told Florida Today.
But Lori Scott, supervisor of elections for Brevard County, said that there were no legal issues with the church serving as a polling place – in fact, nearly half of Brevard’s 123 polling places are churches. She made clear that it was church officials who decided to bow out after the controversy, and that county officials would have been happy to allow them to keep serving as a polling station.
“It was [Holy Name’s] decision…I would not have moved it,” Scott told Florida Today. I rely on lots of organizations for polling places and churches are a big part of that. They are the only community centers in a lot of places.”
“It is always unfortunate to lose a long-standing community partner, especially between a primary and a general election,” Scott added in an op-ed addressing the controversy. “Holy Name of Jesus has served the voters of Brevard County for 45 years. I thank church leaders for their generosity and their many years of dedicated service.”
LifeSiteNews reached out to both Holy Name of Jesus parish and the Diocese of Orlando for comment, but neither organization returned our phone calls or emails.