Well played school, well played...

[Janie Grace]

Our schools are always off on election day for voting. There was a bake sale for a robotics club beyond the political signs at our school. It warmed my heart. 

[QueenCat]

See to me it would feel weird voting in a school or church.  I can't imagine a school district canceling school just so the building was available for voting. And I never heard of using a church before either. Around here places I've voted and watched my parents vote at: library, fire station, police station, grocery store, VFW, city municipal building and county municipal buildings. But I suppose jurisdictions will use whatever building is readily available to them.

 

All the counties around here were closed around here.

[indigomama]

And that is so bizarre to me, having a polling place in a church. I mean, I suppose if you have a lot of churches and only one school and that school isn't very big it makes sense, but....

 

Ours was at a church as well. Liberal area of CA, didn't seem to bother people.

[TechWife]

My polling place is a private, Catholic school. 

 

Voting precincts are geographically drawn, so the polling place has to be within the precinct. Officials find the best suitable place available based upon location, parking and available area for polling. Often, this building is a church or private school. Both are valuable contributors to any community, whether or not any one of the voters ideologically agrees with their faith. They are public spaces open to the community at large. 

[LifeLovePassion]

My parents vote at a local nursing home (major metro city). We have always voted in churches here in the suburbs.

[scrapbookbuzz]

What some of you may not realize is polling sites are where they are because those venues have agreed to have them there.

It's really up to the venue and not to those running the election.

 

When I lived in the Midwest, I remember polling sites being in schools. I don't think I've seen that here in the Southwest.

Here, it's usually the community centers, churches, or the occasional mobile home park.

 

Keep in mind that an election polling site, especially during a presidential election, can really disrupt the flow of business.

Public schools here are so bad I'm sure they need all the days they can to get even a modicum of education done. Anyway,

it's up to the venue whether or not they're willing to have their business disrupted for the day. A church building is actually perfect

for a Tuesday, since very little goes on in most church buildings on Tuesdays. As for the community center where my polling site was,

they cancelled all classes for the day because the room we were in was where most of their classes are held.

[luuknam]

Public schools here are so bad I'm sure they need all the days they can to get even a modicum of education done.

 

It's not a snow day. It doesn't cut into the scheduled number of days of school. We're still on track to get 185 days of school in (state required minimum is 180, but they schedule 185 in case of snow days). So, while I don't know about where you're at, I don't think taking election day off is likely to make a difference in the number of days the kids get school.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I have split my in person voting between a church and a public elementary school.

 

In one state the school would be closed for the general/presidential election, but not for primaries or special elections, where turn out was lower.

 

In our current county most of the polling places are schools, but there are some churches.  In other counties in the state, where schools are much smaller or cover a much larger geographic area (and would thus be distant for many precincts), there are more community centers and religious sites.  I did see at least one Buddhist meeting room listed.