‘Poll Chaplains’ help keep the peace at polls across 10 states
More than 1,000 clergy and believers of different faiths helped keep the atmosphere peaceful at polling places across the country on Tuesday.
Organized by Faiths United to Save Democracy (FUSD) — a nonpartisan and multi-faith organization — pastors, imams, rabbis and clergy known as "poll chaplains" and "peacekeepers" are present at polling stations in 10 states: North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas, Florida, Alabama, Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Many poll chaplains who called to check in with leadership at their command center in Washington, D.C., throughout the day said things were "smooth and steady."
DJs played music, voters were seen dancing while waiting in line to vote and food was available at polling places in states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, poll chaplains say.
There were also reports of alleged voter intimidation and voting machines being down. Men in trucks blared speeches by former President Donald Trump in front of polling locations, according to a poll chaplain in Cleveland, Ohio. Chaplains also reported heavy police presence at polling sites, and some said they were restricted from interacting with voters in Michigan.
There were also reports of bomb threats targeting polling places in Fulton County and DeKalb County, Georgia, that officials later said were a hoax.
Barbara Williams-Skinner, coordinator and co-convener of FUSD, said election officials and polling managers welcomed the presence of poll chaplains over concerns of voter intimidation.
"What they have told us is that the presence of ordained pastors, imams, rabbis with their collars on has created a calming presence, a moral presence. It says we're here," Williams-Skinner told NPR.
The poll chaplains, who are unpaid, were trained to de-escalate "conflict where they see it" and be peacekeepers, she said.
"They're creating an environment that says, 'We're all Americans here. We all have a right to be here and we're here to make sure nobody gets intimidated or threatened'," she said. "We don't care which candidate you are for. We are here because we think the vote is sacred."
The purpose of the role is not to "evangelize" or preach to people, Bishop Vashti Murphy-McKenzie said. Chaplains are also not telling people whom to vote for.
"We are just there to be an assistance and to be a peacekeeping presence," she said.
Rev. Dr. Cynthia Hale, a poll chaplain lead in Georgia, said she began volunteering as a poll worker nearly 8 years ago and her experience has primarily been "great."
"People have been very open because some people are nervous. They have not voted before or they haven't voted in a long time," Hale said reflecting on her experience.
She said the biggest issue that she has dealt with was voter who got "uptight" with a polling worker because they found out they were at the wrong polling location and the voter became flustered. "We just simply said, 'Okay. Let's find the right place and help you get there'," Hale said.
And while having poll chaplains and peacekeepers at polling sites is comforting for many voters, it also paints a somber picture.
"For the first time, a majority of election workers and polling places have security like they've never had before. Bulletproof glass, snipers, all kinds of things. We've never had this in polling places," Rev. Jim Wallis, Archbishop Desmond Tutu Chair in Faith and Justice at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy. Wallis is also director of the university's Center on Faith and Justice.
Williams-Skinner echoed and Wallis and said it shows that America is at a crossroad.
"We need to encourage people to choose hope over fear. And if we do that, we have a chance for America to be what it is slated to be. It's a beacon light on the hill, a place of hope for everyone and a standard for people across the globe of what it means to be a diverse nation where there's a space for everyone," she said.
