The Blessing of the Ballots

“Voting is a really important right and privilege and not just something that’s about politics but about moral and faith based choices that we make.” — Rabbi Marc Soloway

On Wednesday October 26th, a group of faith leaders from a variety of religions gathered at the Boulder County Clerk and Recorders Office to bless the ballots, to cast their own ballots and to encourage people of religious faith to vote.
Ministers from the Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder, the Lutheran Church, the Disciples of Christ, the Presbyterian church, UCC, the Episcopalian church joined a Buddhist minister from Naropa, and a Jewish rabbi in the interfaith event organized by Together Colorado.

Rev. Thandiwe Dale-Ferguson, Associate Minister at the Cairn Christian Church in Lafayette told KGNU’s Kim Poletti that they were trying to encourage people in the wider community to vote “we really believe that casting our votes is a way of expressing ourselves and raising our voices and there is great power in that.”

Dale-Ferguson says that voting is one of the ways that power gets distributed and that is how things can become more equal in society. “There is the sense that when too few people hold power, that injustice and unfairness and a lot of problems follow. And one of the ways that too few people hold power is when not enough people vote.”

Amendment T, the state-wide ballot measure to remove language around slavery from the state’s constitution, and Amendment 70, the state-wide measure to raise the minimum wage, were measures identified by the faith leaders as being moral issues in this years election.

Rabbi Marc Soloway of Congregation Bonai Shalom in Boulder says voting is a moral issue for people of faith. “Voting is a really important right and privilege and not just something that’s about politics but about moral and faith based choices that we make.”

This is Soloway’s first year voting in an American election, having just become a US citizen last December. “It feels like an amazing moment to be here and to cast my vote in this way with the support and embrace of colleagues from across different faith traditions.”