Voting Guides

[DCharlton]

This morning during our weekly Pericope Study, two people from the Florida Family Policy Council walked into the narthex and the fellowship hall asking if we wanted voting guides.  Since we were in the middle of a Bible Study I simply told them we don't give our voting guides.  If I had not been occupied, I might have chatted with them about Lutheran theology.  (I would have felt a little hypocritical as I did it, but that's another matter.)

I don't remember anyone coming around in 2012 and wondered there was a resurgence in the voting guide business in 2016, or whether I just missed the visit in 2012. 

[peterm]

Being in Iowa I get calls regularly at both my churches about voting guides.  I refuse them for a number of reasons.  The two biggest being;

1)  I don't feel it is the task of the church, or of the Pastor to tell people HOW to vote.  I can and do encourage the TO vote, but never from the pulpit.

2)  Civil politics in church can be a land mine for a pastor, and I am guided by my grandmother's advice to not discuss Politics in the family.

[Richard Johnson]

I certainly agree that voting guides should be a no-no. The exception, at least in California, would be the League of Women Voters guide to Propositions--of which we always have hundreds (it feels like), some of them deceptive and/or complex. I know the LWV is regarded by some as a "liberal" group, but in Calif. their guide to propositions is very much non-partisan, giving coherent and brief arguments for and against each proposition.

I'm afraid I stopped allowing a similar piece from the Lutheran Office of Public Policy; entirely too one-sided.

[Eileen Smith]

I certainly agree that voting guides should be a no-no. The exception, at least in California, would be the League of Women Voters guide to Propositions--of which we always have hundreds (it feels like), some of them deceptive and/or complex. I know the LWV is regarded by some as a "liberal" group, but in Calif. their guide to propositions is very much non-partisan, giving coherent and brief arguments for and against each proposition.

I'm afraid I stopped allowing a similar piece from the Lutheran Office of Public Policy; entirely too one-sided.

We lived in southern California (before moving to beautiful, four-season New Jersey) and I must agree, there certainly was an abundance of propositions brought before voters.  I think we always received voting guides n the mail.

[Richard Johnson]

I certainly agree that voting guides should be a no-no. The exception, at least in California, would be the League of Women Voters guide to Propositions--of which we always have hundreds (it feels like), some of them deceptive and/or complex. I know the LWV is regarded by some as a "liberal" group, but in Calif. their guide to propositions is very much non-partisan, giving coherent and brief arguments for and against each proposition.

I'm afraid I stopped allowing a similar piece from the Lutheran Office of Public Policy; entirely too one-sided.

We lived in southern California (before moving to beautiful, four-season New Jersey) and I must agree, there certainly was an abundance of propositions brought before voters.  I think we always received voting guides n the mail.

Well, you could have moved to the beautiful, four-season Sierra Nevada foothills!

[Steven Tibbetts]

We lived in southern California (before moving to beautiful, four-season New Jersey) and I must agree, there certainly was an abundance of propositions brought before voters.  I think we always received voting guides n the mail.

Those guides are prepared by the Secretary of State or the local election authorities, including a summary and the text of the various propositions and initiatives -- along with statements and rebuttal statements from both proponents and opponents -- and mailed to all registered voters.  At least they were when I was in California.  The League of Women Voters and other organizations also prepare voter guides which are distributed in various and sundry ways.  I miss getting from Illinois election officials that sort of information.

Pax, Steven+

[RPG]

We lived in southern California (before moving to beautiful, four-season New Jersey) and I must agree, there certainly was an abundance of propositions brought before voters.  I think we always received voting guides n the mail.

Those guides are prepared by the Secretary of State or the local election authorities, including a summary and the text of the various propositions and initiatives -- along with statements and rebuttal statements from both proponents and opponents -- and mailed to all registered voters.  At least they were when I was in California.  The League of Women Voters and other organizations also prepare voter guides which are distributed in various and sundry ways.  I miss getting from Illinois election officials that sort of information.

Pax, Steven+

Growing up in Washington state, we received Voter's Information Guides from the state by mail as well.  I'm not sure if that's still the case. 
South Dakota, unfortunately, doesn't prepare them.

RPG+

[Dave Benke]

Nuts.  I thought this was about voting guides for the upcoming Missouri Synod Convention, which, all things being equal, I will not be attending for the first time in 30 years.  I was going to say that I'm Free at Last, Free at Last.  Just a local pastor trying to keep the parish afloat by the grace of God in a time of deep transition.

But - off the topic.  Back to Trumpmania.  The Donald's home base as a child is about a mile and a half from our home in Queens.  Regarding voting guides, let your conscience be your guide.

Dave Benke

[Dave Likeness]

Pastor Tibbetts has lived in Illinois long enough to know that
the Chicago Democrat Machine will never publish a voting guide
for this state.  It is assumed that you will vote Democrat.  The
GOP in Illinois are a minority people.

[Steverem]

Pastor Tibbetts has lived in Illinois long enough to know that
the Chicago Democrat Machine will never publish a voting guide
for this state.  It is assumed that you will vote Democrat.  The
GOP in Illinois are a minority people.

More accurate to say that the GOP is a minority people in Chicago.  Remove the Chicagoland area from the state, and Illinois leans heavily Republican.

Evidence Item A:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Illinois,_2012

[Charles Austin]

In the days of Jerry Falwell's "Moral Majority," the "voting guides" were not so thinly-disguised pieces of campaign literature for Republican candidates, distributed at and through churches. The pretense that they were "informational" or "non-partisan" was as phony as a three-dollar bill.

[Steverem]

In the days of Jerry Falwell's "Moral Majority," the "voting guides" were not so thinly-disguised pieces of campaign literature for Republican candidates, distributed at and through churches. The pretense that they were "informational" or "non-partisan" was as phony as a three-dollar bill.

... and if memory serves, the NCC also once offered their own version of a voting guide that was every bit as predictable in the other direction.

[Charles Austin]

My memory of those times does not serve me that, Steverem. But you may be right.

[Jeremy Loesch]

Voting guides came out in Ohio when I served there. One came from Ken Blackwell, who was secretary of state at the time. I threw them away. I encouraged people to vote.

Delaware didn't have voting guides, but the level of corruption and following the "Delaware Way" made elections mostly pointless.

This is the first election for me in Missouri so I will see if any guides come to church.

Jeremy

[Richard Johnson]

My memory of those times does not serve me that, Steverem. But you may be right.

I don't remember voting guides from the NCC, but we certainly had them from the California Council of Churches. They were unfailingly liberal on every conceivable issue. At least the Lutheran Office of Public Policy ones only made recommendations on issues on which the ELCA had made some kind of statement.