Do’s and Don’ts in an Election Year for Churches
Dr. Peter Bakken, WCC’s Coordinator for Justice & Witness joined Rev. Breanna Illéné, WCC’s Content Curation and Ecumenical Innovation Coordinator to talk about what churches can and cannot do during elections.
There are upcoming elections on April 5th which are nonpartisan elections, focused on more local offices (county supervisors, mayors, school boards, court of appeals, circuit court judges) with two more elections in the fall (August 9 – fall partisan primary, statewide offices and November 8th – general election).
Churches are 501c3 organizations, nonprofit charitable organizations, and are tax exempt and so there are various things they are not allowed to do because it will jeopardize their non profit status. But there are ways that churches can support the democratic process of voting. Read below for a list of “Do’s and Don’ts” and watch the video for more details.
Do’s
- Lobby on specific legislation – Churches can promote specific bills that have been or could be introduced in the legislature
- Educate
- How to Vote, how to find info on registering to vote, where the polling place is, what will be on the ballot, Voter ID requirement
- Host a candidate forum – as long as all candidates are invited on an equal basis
- Share questionnaires – all candidates must be asked equally
- Share nonpartisan voting guides to what is on the ballot
- If your congregation has been advocating on an issue or bill before the election, you can continue to do so – but don’t bring up an entirely new issue.
- Encourage
- Remind people to vote
- Participate in nonpartisan Get Out The Vote activities
- Allow candidates to use your space but you must charge same rates that you charge other community organizations and it must also be open to other candidates to rent space if they want to
Don’t
- Intervene in campaigns for public office
- Endorse explicitly or implicitly
- Clergy/leaders – you can endorse as a private individual but not as a representative of your congregation
- Donate money or in kind products
- Rank candidates on issues or say “they agree/disagree with us” on issues you care about
- Have congregants running for office announce their candidacy for office or speak about their campaign in worship
To learn more, check out the Wisconsin Interfaith Voter Campaign or visit
Rev. Breanna Illéné and Dr. Peter Bakken talking about the Do’s and Don’ts of Elections for Churches
