(no subject)

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

So, I don't have much to say on this other than to mention this and to see the reaction of people here.

I don't have a link or the exact specifics, but, I have on what I consider to be good authority the fact that:

There is an electoral district in/near Buffalo, NY (I don't know the exact spot, but the person who told me this, is in my view, a trustworthy person) where the polling place is a police station.

This seems kinda like voter intimidation and I consider it to be inappropriate to have a voting place to be at a police station. I'm sure there was a school or church nearby that could have sufficed. What do you think?

Comments

[vnsplshr.livejournal.com]

It's a government building.

Fits perfectly.

[mijopo.livejournal.com]

Can you say more about why you think it "seems kinda like voter intimidation" and/or why it's inappropriate?

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

Cause, ya know, the police aren't always exactly the pure and honest folk that we want them to be?

[mijopo.livejournal.com]

That's also true of officials who happen to work at churches and schools.

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

But do those officials usually patrol the streets with guns and tazers and mace and the authority to use them?

I mean, you do get that people who have been victims of police brutality might not want to go to a police station to vote, right?

[mijopo.livejournal.com]

Yes, and people who have been victims of priest abuse might not want to go to a church to vote and people who have had mean teachers may not want to go to a school to vote. Come on, enders, don't just wave your hands, formulate an argument.

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

The problem is more systemic and serious with police than with teachers or priests.

The police are more involved in violent interactions with the populace, more often and in greater force, than either teachers or priests.

The level of intensity for bad teaches and bad cops are generally different because of the amount of power that teachers vs cops have.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

No it's not. People who are influential in religious-political movements regularly advocate terrorism and violence against sexual minorities and claim that God supports bullying of same with none of the (in several cases more than justified) criticism that cops get.

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

I thought it was fairly self-evident. Sorry for not flushing it out. I'm surprised it's not obvious to all.

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

no, I'm trying to understand your point, but i don't get it. I would think police station provides greater security for democracy then most alternatives

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

And people in certain denominations have ties to people attempting to set up gays for LGBTQI individuals and people prone to 16th-Century style witch-hunts, to say nothing of these same individuals advocating that God Loves Bullies. So again, why are the police necessarily more intimidating than churches?

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

It's not hard to imagine people who have had lots of negative experiences with the police, right? And those people might not want to go to a police station to vote.

While it's not everyone who would feel intimidated, I believe the district was largely composed of minority individuals, and they often get profiled by the police and treated in a less than fair manner.

[404.livejournal.com]

Oh good grief, I guess someone can always find something to complain about if they look hard enough.

[tridus.livejournal.com]

I think it doesn't matter in the slightest. If you can be deterred from voting because the vote is in a police station, you probably don't have a strong stake in the outcome.

(Of course I'm a white male bureaucrat, which is so boring to the police that I might as well be invisible.)

[harry-beast.livejournal.com]

The job of elected officials is to pass laws; therefore, if you consider law enforcement to be inappropriate, you probably shouldn't vote.

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you and I understand this similarly.

[harry-beast.livejournal.com]

If you object to brown sludge, does that mean that you would be intimidated if the vote were held at a water treatment plant? If every place associated with a political issue were ruled out as a location for a voting station, where do you suggest that voting occur?

To my mind, criteria for selecting voting stations should address a few basic criteria, e.g. location, sufficient space, suitable layout, access to transit, parking and so on. I doubt that a congressman's office would be a great location, but if meets the criteria and is available, then why not?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I'm-a just say this: there's no reason to hold voting places in *churches* as *that* can be plenty capable in some people of intimidation in its own right.

[ghoststrider.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

A church????? You can't vote in a church, what about the separation of church and state???? A polling place in a church indeed!!

[reality-hammer.livejournal.com]

Our county election officials in their infinite wisdom consolidated three polling places into one (not really a problem) but the picked a church (again not really a problem) with...a tiny parking lot and horrible access to the main road.

The thing is two of the places they moved to that location had both ample parking and good access to main roads. :P

[reality-hammer.livejournal.com]

Sounds like an urban legend since NY law requires a police officer to be on duty at all polling stations. (Thus making all polling places "a deterrent" to voting by that logic.)

You also need a lot of room and no problem with dozens of people moving in and out of a building without much checking and that doesn't fit well with a police station.

However, an annex and/or part of a government building which happens to also contain a police station (which you will often find in a small town) is both reasonable and shouldn't deter anyone.

IMO a church would be more objectionable.

In any case you can always use absentee ballots or cast your vote at county election offices if you have a problem with your local polling place.

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

Not a problem.

[chron-job.livejournal.com]

Depends on context.

I could see it depressing minority voter turnout in areas where there's strong minority-law enforcement distrust... but if this isn't one of those places, its possibly a non-issue.

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

Ah, and here we have it.

[thies.livejournal.com]

because there can't be made a case for intimidation/influence when one party up for election runs with strong ties to christianity and everyone has to cast their votes in a church, amirite?

[ghoststrider.livejournal.com]

I'd need more information and fact-checking, but yes, that is highly inappropriate, if only because the police could intimidate anyone into voting for pro-police union candidates just by looking at a voter.

Face it, the police are not honest and haven't been for decades. They have their own self-interests which are not subordinated to the public interest. And thus, having a polling station inside a police station is a definite conflict of interest there.