Texas city threatens to pull church permit over polling place dispute
Mayor raises concerns over pro-Trump pastor, says church 'not where voting belongs'
Attorneys for a North Texas church could file a lawsuit after officials threatened to pull a license that would shut it down following a dispute over its status as an early voting site.
City officials in Rowlett, located about 10 miles Northeast of Dallas, are threatening to revoke Freedom Place Church’s certificate of occupancy after the city’s mayor criticized a decision by Dallas County to use the church as an early voting site, according to religious freedom advocate First Liberty Institute.
Freedom Place Church, an Assemblies of God congregation in a city of about 66,000 people, was chosen for the second consecutive year by election officials as Rowlett’s only early voting site after the site was confirmed to meet all legal requirements, according to attorneys.
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In a September 2023 email, Rowlett Mayor Blake Margolis said the city council wasn't aware of the decision to change the early voting location when it passed an ordinance a month earlier.
“After approving this ordinance, we were made aware that the County needed an amended ordinance to reflect updated election dates,” Margolis wrote. “However, what was not communicated to us is that the voting location would be moved to Freedom Place Church.
“The County should have communicated to the City its intentions to change the voting location before doing so,” the mayor added.
Margolis insisted that the city council would “not allow voting to occur in any church building” and pointed to Freedom Place Senior Pastor Kason Huddleston’s support for former President Donald Trump as a reason for his argument.
“That’s not where voting belongs, and especially when the Pastor of this specific church has endorsed a candidate who will be on the ballot in November,” he added.
The mayor, however, did not cite Huddleston’s political leanings in a social media post earlier this month, instead pointing to Freedom Place’s limited parking space and occupancy load.
According to First Liberty, Margolis’ “hostility to Freedom Place resulted in Dallas County revoking an agreement for the Church to serve as a voting site in 2023.”
That hostility escalated yet again this month when, just days before the start of early voting, city officials claimed to have “discovered problems with the church's certificate of occupancy, though the certificate was issued nearly a year ago,” attorneys said.
“Withdrawing the certificate would force the church to shut down and prevent it from serving as an early voting site,” a First Liberty spokesman added.
In response to the city’s threats to revoke Freedom Place’s occupancy certificate, First Liberty Senior Counsel Jeremy Dys sent a letter on Oct. 7 to Rowlett Director of Community Development Cori Reaume calling for the city to withdraw its threat to revoke the certification, calling it unconstitutional.
Dys added, “... It is clear from the timing of the City’s letter that it is intended to prevent the Church from serving as an early voting site in Dallas County. The Church feels religiously called to serve the members of its community, so when it received a call from Dallas County officials asking if the Church would be interested in serving as an early voting site, it was happy to agree. But now that agreement is in jeopardy based on the City’s unlawful actions.”
Dys also cited what he described as Rowlett’s “intent to discriminate based on the Church’s religious status.”
“The City’s view that churches should never serve as voting sites is not only contrary to history and widespread practices across Dallas County and the United States, but also demonstrates an intent to discriminate based on religious status that is “odious to our Constitution ... and cannot stand,” he wrote, citing the 2017 U.S. Supreme Court case Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer.
On Tuesday, Dallas County Judge Rachel Craig ordered the Rowlett Community Centre to be used as an alternate early voting polling location in addition to Freedom Place Church.
Last month, Margolis issued a public statement which suggested using the church as a polling place could result in "voter suppression, especially for elderly and vulnerable populations" as well as potentially violate the Texas Election Code, according to CBS News.
A Dallas County official told CBS News that despite learning that Huddleston’s page indicated an affiliation with the Republican Party and support for Trump, the county “does not research or consider the political affiliations of property owners when selecting polling sites” and “has successfully used numerous churches as voting sites” in the past.
The Christian Post reached out to Mayor Margolis’ office for comment Thursday. This story will be updated if a response is received.
Margolis, who identifies as a “proud secular” Jew, is the youngest mayor in Rowlett’s history after becoming one of the youngest city council members in the state in 2017.
In May, Margolis voted against a motion to disband the city’s diversity commission after he reportedly feared “threats of violent protests” over the plan. The motion ultimately passed in a 4-3 vote.
Early voting throughout the state of Texas is set to begin Oct. 21.
Ian M. Giatti is a reporter for The Christian Post and the author of THE ASSEMBLY ON THE ROCK: Israel, the New Covenant + the Continuity of Scripture. He can be reached at: [email protected].
