In Missouri, Clergy Argue for Religious Exemption to Vote by Mail

(RNS) — Religious belief has long impacted who Americans choose to support on Election Day, but if a growing group of Missouri Jewish leaders and other clergy have their way, religion may change how millions in the state cast their ballots this November — ideally in ways that limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“I think it’s hard to overstate both how important the preservation of life is to Jews — and how important our democracy is,” Maharat Rori Picker Neiss, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council in St. Louis, told Religion News Service.

The controversy in the Show-Me State revolves around local absentee voting laws that have come under scrutiny in the midst of the ongoing pandemic, with many voters expressing a desire to vote from home to avoid encountering disease.

Five states, including Washington, Oregon and Utah, already conduct elections entirely using a vote-by-mail system, and many others distribute mail-in absentee ballots to anyone who requests them. But Missouri is one of several states that also requires an excuse to receive an absentee ballot, and Gov. Mike Parson suggested in a recent press conference that officials may not recognize, as a valid reason, the fear of contracting the novel coronavirus.

“The absentee ballot is more of a political issue than it is anything,” he said. “This is a Democrat-Republican issue and that’s…