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Posted on Mon, Oct. 04, 2004 Kerry says Republicans suppressing voting in swing states MARY DALRYMPLE Associated Press CLEVELAND - Republicans have been trying to suppress voting in states where the presidential race is too close to call, Democratic nominee John Kerry said Sunday at one of the city's largest predominantly black churches. "In battleground states across the country, we're hearing stories of how people are trying to make it harder to file for additional time, or how they're making it harder to even register," Kerry told an enthusiastic congregation at East Mt. Zion Baptist Church. "We're not going to...

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This year's drive to call out new voters from every corner of America's religious landscape is likely to keep political analysts busy as they try to determine what impact it had on the 2004 election. Bill Lunch is chairman of the political science department at Oregon State University and an expert on the role religious conservatives have played in Oregon politics. He says the mix of religion and politics this year, both nationally and locally, will be interesting to watch. "There is probably more political activity n and greater voter registration efforts n in Oregon churches this year than in...

I have cut & pasted from Westlaw the electioneering/polling laws from 14 states: AK,AZ,CA,CO,DE,ID,KS,NJ,OH,WV,WI,SD,NM,FL. These are pasted in a 35 page Microsoft Word document. How shoould I post this large doc- I don't know much about computers. The info. is great- each state's law w/ the cases where the law has been applied.

I have cut and pasted from Westlaw the annotated statutes dealing w/ electioneering, poling places, etc into a 35 page Word Document. I have the following state laws: ARKANSAS, AZ, CA, CO, DE, ID, KS, NJ, OH, WV, WI, NM, FL, and a LOT of info. on SD- look out, Dasch-ole! How can I post this 35 page document- I don;t know much about computers. This is really great info, it's the most current state law and references actual litigated cases that applied the listed statutes.

A month ago, the Internal Revenue Service mailed a letter to the First Baptist Church of College Hill inquiring about a visit two years ago by Janet Reno, then a Democratic candidate for governor. The letter caused the Rev. Abraham Brown to move a scheduled political forum from the historically black church. Why? Because if the IRS found the church was supporting or opposing a political candidate, it could revoke the church's tax-exempt status. No church in the United States has ever lost its tax-exempt status, but in a campaign season when the presidential candidates are reaching out to church...

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Democratic candidate John Kerry warned black Americans on Thursday to beware of George W. Bush's overtures and called the Republican president a false prophet who "traffics in the politics of division." In a tough speech to the National Baptist Convention laced with Biblical allusions, the Democratic presidential nominee rejected Bush's claim to be a "compassionate conservative," likening him instead to the two men in the story of the Good Samaritan who passed by when they came upon a robbed and beaten man. "They felt compassion but there were no deeds," Kerry said to a standing ovation....

Bill Clinton bashed President Bush in a speech delivered from the pulpit of a prominent Manhattan church on the Sunday before the Republican National Convention began. Yet, Americans United for Separation of Church and State does not view Clinton's pulpit-based diatribe a violation of tax laws. Ever since then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson (D.-Tex.) slipped a provision into a bill back in 1954, federal law has prohibited tax-exempt churches from engaging in partisan political speech. Every election season, Americans United files complaints against churches that it alleges have violated this law. The group also opposes the Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration...

Last Sunday three Democrats showed just how far they will go to talk their fellow Americans into voting for their party. They brazenly ascended pulpits in Miami and New York and told flat-out lies to the telling the congregations assembled there to worship the Lord. In New York, former President Bill Clinton took time out from the European leg of his book tour to come back to address the congregation at the ultra-liberal Riverside Memorial Church, where he dissected President Bush’s faith. "I believe President Bush is a good Christian," he said. "I believe that his faith in Jesus gave...

Bishop Victor T. Curry of Miami’s New Birth Baptist Church welcomed Rev. Al Sharpton, who ran against Senator John Kerry for the Democratic nomination, and Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.  Jamie Malernee of the Sun-Sentinel reported that Curry ‘made no apologies for turning his Sunday service into a political rally.’  Rev. Sharpton, speaking from the pulpit, added to the politicized atmosphere by shouting, ‘We’re not people who are going to be beat twice.’  But no one was more partisan than McAuliffe: ‘Bush has misled us for four years and will not mislead us for the...

They danced, clapped, shouted and sang, and that was before the Rev. Al Sharpton even opened his mouth. By the time the former presidential candidate finished his sermon to more than a thousand people gathered in a Miami church Sunday, blending politics and religion into a call to action to South Florida's black community, congregation members churned with energy. When he was done, Sharpton introduced the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. McAuliffe apologized to the congregation for the 2000 election and for not being in Florida to stop voting problems.

Big Brother Church Watch Announced Washington, DC William J. Murray, the president of the Religious Freedom Action Coalition, a social conservative group, announced the formation of a group to monitor traditionally liberal churches for political activity. The new group, Big Brother Church Watch, functions primarily through its Internet site at www.RatOutaChurch.org! The newly formed organization has already placed monitors in politically active Metropolitan Community, Unitarian/Universalist, and AME churches. AME churches are predominately African-American and their pastors frequently endorse liberal Democrat candidates from the pulpit. Volunteer workers will also be monitoring Internet sites of Democratic candidates and following them to churches...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com Church, state and politicsBy Paul GreenbergPublished August 13, 2004 The separation of church and state in an ever-changing society will always be a complicated matter, and has been ever since the idea was new.     The line Thomas Jefferson drew between the two -- in his famous letter to the Baptists of Danbury -- has shifted over the years, but it has held. The separation of church and state remains one of the most universally accepted principles of American government, thank God.     Now a Baptist minister in little ol' Springdale, Ark., has been accused of crossing the line....

A fight is erupting this election season between conservative churches and liberal watchdog groups that are going to the IRS and accusing ministers of violating the law if they speak out about political issues and candidates.     "Right now, it's very one-sided," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a conservative legal-action group.     He said the liberal Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) -- led by the Rev. Barry W. Lynn -- has been "very aggressive" in going after churches "that are conservative in their leanings." But AU has "looked the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry has begun speaking more openly about his faith, a move political experts say is crucial to chipping away at President Bush's advantage among churchgoers. Kerry, a Roman Catholic, rarely addressed his faith during the primary season, but from his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last month to regular visits to black and non-denominational churches, he is talking in more detail about God's role in his life. At the Greater Grace Temple in Springfield, Ohio, last Sunday, Kerry told hundreds of worshipers he was running as a "lay leader" but added:...

JOHN Kerry has begun speaking more openly about his faith, a move political experts say is crucial to chipping away at President George Bush’s advantage among church-goers. Mr Kerry, a Roman Catholic, rarely addressed his faith during the primary season, but from his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last month to regular visits to black and non-denominational churches, he is talking in more detail about God’s role in his life. At the Greater Grace Temple in Springfield, Ohio, Mr Kerry told hundreds of worshippers he was running as a "lay leader", but added: "There isn’t any way that...

EAST CHICAGO -- Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter is suing the administration of Mayor Robert Pastrick to recoup millions of public dollars allegedly stolen through a "corrupt enterprise used for personal gain by the mayor and others." Carter accuses Pastrick of masterminding a pattern of corruption and theft to win the 1999 Democratic city primary with what the lawsuit calls a "Sidewalks for Votes Scheme" to buy re-election with free concrete and tree-trimming services. Carter also alleges Pastrick won the 2003 Democratic primary by stealing absentee ballots, which he said shows a pattern of continuing corruption. Pastrick wouldn't face imprisonment...

A Christian attorney is encouraging pastors to be bold when it comes to speaking out about political and moral issues. Earlier this month, Democratic vice-presidential nominee John Edwards spoke from the pulpit of St Mark AME Church in Orlando, Florida. No one complained about the speech. But Liberty Counsel president Mat Staver says when Dr. Jerry Falwell expressed his personal opinion -- in a non-church publication -- about supporting President George W. Bush, the liberal group Americans United for Separation of Church and State lodged a complaint. Staver accuses several groups -- among them Americans United, People for the American...

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - A church pastor who invited Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry to speak during a Sunday service said he rebuffed criticism from others upset by Kerry's support of a woman's right to have an abortion. The Rev. Ronald Logan, senior pastor of the Greater Grace Temple, didn't identify the source of the criticism, but the full house of 800 loudly cheered and applauded when Logan said he welcomed Kerry, running mate John Edwards as fellow worshippers. They were joined by four Ohio congressional Democrats and former U.S. Sen. John Glenn, who sat in the front row. Logan estimated...