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Jan. 16, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: I am writing to express my extreme dismay that I found out last Tuesday on Election Day that my local polling location had changed from the county fire station to a local church. As I pulled into the parking lot to cast my ballot for Jade Harris, a candidate I was excited to vote for, I began to feel quite uncomfortable. Our country was founded on the principles of the separation of church and state, so it felt very wrong to now be asked to cast my ballot in a building that was built for faith and religion.
As a writer, I believe very strongly in the power of symbols and metaphors - they are very potent subliminal messages in our psyches. As I walked in the church to cast my ballot for my candidate, I felt the heavy power and symbolism very uncomfortably, “greeted” by a big cross over the door. I couldn’t help thinking about a young first-time voter walking into this church to cast a ballot. Voting in a house of faith sends the wrong message. I admonish this poor civic choice.
Please move all polling places to any other location -firehouse, school, post office, community centers, anywhere, but not in a church or any place of faith. Isn’t this still The United States of America? CYNTHIA ATKINS Rockbridge County
