As an election judge, Sr Cheryl Clemons knew November 5 would be a long day. Source: Global Sisters Report.
Sr Clemons had to arrive at her polling place by 5am (local time) and will have to stay there until at least 7pm. But there’s another task after that before she’s done – one that fills her with reverence and wonder.
“I get to be one of the two people that take the ballots in,” said the Ursuline Sister of Mount St Joseph, meaning she and another election judge from the polling place will take the thumb drives with the ballots stored on them to the Daviess County Courthouse in Owensboro, Kentucky, and deliver them to the election office.
Sr Clemons is just one of many Catholic sisters working on the 2024 general election, as women religious work to educate voters, encourage voter turnout and pray for unity and healing over division.
In Illinois’ Sangamon County, Springfield Dominicans Sr Beth Murphy and Sr Katherine O’Connor are both election judges; Sr O’Connor in Auburn, about a half-hour away, and Sr Murphy at the Catholic parish where she also votes.
Another Springfield Dominican, Sr Marilyn Jean Runkel, works on the Integrated Voter Engagement effort, a proprietary voter turnout process created by the nonprofit Gamaliel. It is especially aimed at reaching historically underrepresented populations.
“They’re training people to learn how to get people out to vote,” Sr Murphy said. “It’s not to push them one way or another, but to encourage them to cast a ballot.”
For the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, work on the election began a week after Thanksgiving of 2023, when it became clear how deeply the country was divided.
“It was about who is at our table and how can we have invitational conversations,” said LCWR’s associate director for transformative justice Sr Bridget Bearss, a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart. “It’s really about this deeper transformation that needs to happen, because it’s our neighbours, it’s our families.”
That led to the creation of Transforming Grace, a contemplative-based program of reflections, prayer spaces, and training to find common ground.
They created dozens of reflections, many of which were translated into Spanish by the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, and held online virtual prayer sessions during each party’s convention, with another planned for Election Day.
FULL STORY
Democracy becomes another ministry for sisters in 2024 election (By Dan Stockman, Global Sisters Report)
