A Muslim civil liberties organization is calling for Palm Beach County‘s elections supervisor to return a Boca Raton mosque to a list of voting locations.
The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is sending Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher a written request to restore the Islamic Center of Boca Raton as a voting site, according to a statement released Monday.
Bucher, a Democrat, decided this past week to move a polling site from the Islamic Center of Boca Raton, at 3480 NW Fifth Ave., to the Spanish River Library.
Bucher, who is seeking to be re-elected to her nonpartisan position, has not responded to requests for comment.
In a statement, CAIR called changing the voting site “an openly discriminatory decision affecting the federally protected rights of the Palm Beach County voters.”
“Her discretion to designate or remove polling sites must never be based on religious, racial or ethnic bias,” Laila Abdelaziz, CAIR-Florida legislative and government affairs director, said in a prepared statement. “The apparent unconstitutional religious bias may need to be corrected by our courts.”
Bassem Alhalabi, president of the mosque, says Bucher told him she moved the polling location because of about 50 phone calls to her office complaining about using a mosque for voting.
Making the mosque a polling site was initially Bucher’s idea, but she changed her mind amid opposition, Alhalabi said.
The list of voting sites includes Christian churches and synagogues.