Conservatives Put Faith in Church Voter Drives

From an article of the same title by Peter Wallsten in the LA Times:

As discontent with the Republican Party threatens to dampen the turnout of conservative voters in November, evangelical leaders are launching a massive registration drive designed to reach religious voters in battleground states. The program, coordinated by the Colorado-based group Focus on the Family and its influential founder, James C. Dobson, will use a variety of methods -- including information inserted in church publications and booths placed outside worship services -- to try to recruit millions of new voters in 2006 and beyond... The new voter-registration program -- with a special focus on eight states, including Michigan, with key Senate, House and state-level races -- comes as Republicans are struggling with negative public sentiment over the war in Iraq and other administration policies. Turning out core GOP voters is central to the party's strategy to retain control of Congress... The program, announced in an e-mail last week, is seeking county and church coordinators in the targeted states of Maryland, Montana, Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Minnesota. "In 2004, about 25 million evangelicals failed to vote. Now is the time to reverse the trend," the e-mail said. According to the e-mail, county coordinators are being asked to work about five hours a week and would be responsible for "recruiting key evangelical churches." The church coordinators, devoting one or two hours per week, would be in charge of "encouraging pastors to speak about Christian citizenship, conducting a voter-registration drive, distributing voter guides and get-out-the-vote efforts." Registering voters in churches is not a new tactic for either party, but Republicans have proved far more effective in recent years at combining religion and politics for electoral gain. Critics say the practice is potentially illegal, citing tax laws that prohibit churches from engaging in partisan activities.