Offering Hospitality During the Election Season
While churches are typically most used on Sunday mornings, many of our buildings are valuable assets for the entire community and provide services throughout the week. One way that churches help their communities is by opening their doors during elections and serving as a polling location. If you are interested in offering your building as a polling location, contact your local municipal clerk and see if there is a need.
Our faith calls us to show hospitality (Hebrews 13:2). So if your church hosts a polling location, we invite you to pull together a team and spend some time making your space welcoming for the members of the community who will walk through your doors April 2nd and in the fall. Here are a few ideas we gathered to start your brainstorming.
- Check outdoor signage so that it is clear where people should enter your building.
- Check indoor signage indicating polling location, bathrooms, and elevators (if people need to use it to access polling location).
- Ensure someone from the church checks in with the poll workers throughout the day and that they can contact someone if they need anything.
- Host a bake sale for a local non-profit or mission project. One church found that allowing people to “pay what they can” generated more funds than pricing items.
- Offer free coffee and snacks – cookies, popcorn, or something else.
- Provide nametags for volunteers (and poll workers if they want them).
- Order pizza or provide lunch to poll workers.
- Invite people in your congregation to work as poll workers either in your building or another place in the community.
- Create a kids’ polling station – one church had a kid’s poll booth that let kids vote for their favorite animal and kept them entertained while their parents voted.
- Remind your congregation to vote on Tuesday, April 2nd.
Download an insert from the WCC to include in your bulletins
A reminder, there are rules for polling locations, so be careful to remain non-partisan and follow directions from the poll workers in your building.
Photo credit: Rev. Wendy Slaback (pastor at Menomonie UMC) for the Tainter Town Hall polling location
Download a Bulletin Insert with Election Information for Your Congregation
The WCC is excited to offer a bulletin insert for your congregation, with one side featuring basic information about voting and the other offering a summary of the recent article, “Understanding Proposed Amendments to the Wisconsin Constitution in a Faith Context” by Doug Poland put out by the WCC with a QR code to read the whole article.
You are welcome to use this information in bulletins, newsletters, social media, or more. We are also happy to adjust the insert to work for your congregation. Reach out to us if we can help you.
