In St. Louis: Voter Education or Church-State Breach?

In an innovative attempt to educate the public on use of new touch-screen voting technology, the St. Louis Election Board has raised an interesting church-state issue. According to today's St. Louis Post Dispatch, the Board has loaned the new machines to two different churches for use in their congregational votes on new pastors. Election board workers volunteered their time in at least one of the cases. Then election-board chairman Ed Martin says that this is part of an outreach program, especially to ethnic communities. However, Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State says: "Internal church business is absolutely, positively no business of the St. Louis Board of Elections."