HERE'S an odd postscript to last week's election: one voter complains that a poll worker made her place her hand on a Bible and swear to her identity before she could vote.
Lindsay Granger put up an Election Day blog post, saying, "I had to lay my palm on the good book and state my name and address before I was allowed to sign my name in the voting log and enter the booth. They called it an affirmation. I call it creepy . . . and a little offensive."
Voters can be required to sign an "affirmation" document if they are listed as inactive or there are questions about their address.
But they are not required to swear on a Bible or anything else.
"If anything, I should swear on a Constitution or something," Granger wrote on her blog. "Voting is a civic responsibility, not a religious one . . . and isn't there supposed to be separation of church and state?"
Granger did not respond to our e-mail about the incident at the 15th Ward's first division polls at Trinity Baptist Church, in Fairmount.
We confirmed Granger's story with Bob Lee, the City Commission's voter registration administrator, who said that Bibles have been included in polling-place supplies for decades. They are used to swear in polling-place workers before the polls open on Election Day.
We also spoke with Councilman Bill Greenlee, the 15th Ward leader, who was at the polling place that day, and with Madeline Mclaughlin, the judge of elections. They said they hadn't seen the incident, and attributed it to a new poll worker unsure of the proper procedures.
Lee said Granger hadn't complained to the City Commission. He heard about the incident from the election website BradBlog.com.
Granger also did not complain to the Committee of Seventy, an election-watchdog group, which received three complaints about Bibles at polling places in the city on Election Day, but none from the 15th Ward's first division.
The City Commission, Lee said, will update its poll-worker training to cover Bible issues.
"We will definitely instruct all of the poll officials at our classes before the May primary election," Lee said. "This is the first time I ever heard of them making a voter put their hand on a Bible before they fill out a form."
Dwight's big battle on Tuesday
We were on the phone with state Rep. Dwight Evans yesterday, but it sounded as if he had at least two or three other lines working at the same time as he sought to hold his post as the top Democrat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
