Same-sex measure rankles polling places

November 4th, 2008, 12:39 pm · posted by Tony Saavedra, Register investigative reporter

With voting down to the wire, critics and supporters of Proposition 8 are fighting like, well, an old married couple. So emotional is the debate that several times this morning police were called to polling places to settle problems involving the same-sex marriage measure.

It seems in some instances, Democratic poll watchers were confused with anti-Prop. 8 campaigners — and police asked everybody to leave.

Reporter Sam Miller , who is spending election day with the local Democrats, said “No on 8″ advocates were booted this morning from Don Juan Avila Middle School in Aliso Viejo. Principal Shawn Lowman tells the Watchdog that he asked the folks to leave because they were walking around campus, handing out fliers. Steve Bolinger, an attorney for the Democratic Party, said the group is legally allowed to campaign on campus, as long as they are 100 feet away from the entrance to the polling area and not bothering any classrooms.

“School officials have a tendency to want to panic and kick them off the property,” Bolinger said.

That appears to be the case at Newport Harbor High School in Newport Beach, where police were called to disburse Democratic poll watchers who were accused of campaigning against Prop. 8. Democratic officials said poll watchers merely monitor the voting list and contact party members who have not voted. Poll watchers do not campaign or approach anyone, they said. But Newport Beach police asked them to leave.

At SeaCoast Grace Church in Cypress, junior high pastor Cody Surratt said church officials asked poll watchers to hit the road as well as anti-Prop. 8 folks who were handing out literature. Church staff also took down “Yes on 8″ signs that were planted on church property.

“We wanted our campus to be a neutral environment for people not to be hassled,” Surratt told Miller.

In Fullerton, things got tense at Temple Baptist Church when three people campaigning against

Proposition 8 refused the pastor’s order to leave. The campaigners were well past the 100-foot limit from the polling area, but they were still on church property. Registrar Neal Kelley (far right, with Jeff LeTourneau of ‘No on 8′ on the left and Democratic attorney Steve Bollinger in the middle) pronounced the problem a matter of private property. Police agreed. But the leaflet-bearing trio maintained that, at least for the day, the entire church - not just the polling area - was public.

As of 12:44 p.m., the church was weighing its options.