http://www.lancasteronline.com/pages/news/local/6/9487
Amish here come out to vote in record numbers GOP registration drive appears to have succeeded
By Rebecca J. Ritzell Intelligencer Journal Published: Nov 03, 2004 10:08 AM EST
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Plain-sect members turned out in record numbers Tuesday to cast ballots for President George W. Bush.
Lancaster County Republican leaders pushed hard to register first-time Amish and Mennonite voters. In Leacock Township, their efforts nearly doubled voter rolls.
Previously, the township had about 1,000 registered voters. As of Tuesday, the township had 1,729. Election workers estimate that all but a few of the additional 700 voters are Amish or Mennonite. And Tuesday they came out to vote. By 3 p.m., more than 800 people had cast ballots.
"We've seen a 100 percent increase in Plain voter turnout," said Bob Alexander, a Leacock Township GOP committeeman.
At times throughout the day, there wasn't a vacant spot at the four-horse hitching rail. Other Old Order voters came by car, driven by neighbors, friends and relatives with drivers licenses.
Alexander greeted voters as they passed through the lobby of the Leacock Township office. A few first-time Amish voters stopped to ask questions about the machines, he said, but not about the candidates. He directed them toward the voting booths in the meeting room.
"We have been saying 'Stoltzfus' all-day," a poll worker said, after she accepted the registration card of yet another Amish voter.
Before 2004, experts estimated that only 10 percent of adult Amish voted. Just a few months ago, Don Kraybill, the Anabaptist scholar based at Elizabethtown College, predicted the Amish would not turn out in great numbers for Bush.
However, Amish supporters turned out in droves on both of the president's recent visits to the county. In Gordonville Tuesday, both broccoli and Bush were in season. The Old Order Amish owners of Sunny Slope Farm on West View Road hung a Bush-Cheney banner on the produce stand.
Speculation over whether the Amish would vote, and in what numbers, drew international media attention. Dale High, judge of elections in Leacock Township, literally chased a photographer from Reuters News Service out of the polling place Tuesday morning.
"I did not want photos of our Amish voters splashed all over Philadelphia," he said.
Alexander allowed himself to be photographed and interviewed by a reporter from the BBC. He said it was a myth that the Amish are opposed to voting on religious grounds. As far as he knew, no Amish bishops from Leacock Township told their congregates not to vote.
One Leacock Township Amish voter, who identified himself as Amos, said members of Plain sects agree to disagree on the issue of voting .
"My dad always voted, and he encouraged me to vote," Amos said. "The Amish community is mixed on this."
Some people felt they could influence the election just by staying home and praying, he said.
This year, Amos encouraged a number of friends and family members to join him at the polls, but didn't coerce anyone. Tuesday, he coached a few first-time voters in Leacock Township's parking lot. They deferred questions to Amos because "he has more experience."
"More members of the Plain Community are going to vote this time ... for the simple reason that Bush has better morals," Amos said. "But if Bush loses, I'll be happy anyway. I'll pray for Kerry, that he'll see the light, and rule this country in a God-fearing way."
--
DMC mailto:dclark at ptd.net