Through its Real Impact ministry, Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, led by Pastor Jack Hibbs, seeks to equip churches “to stand for righteousness in the public square.” The ministry’s leader, Gina Gleason, says the megachurch, which has about 10,000 regular congregants, first got involved in ballot collecting after laws changed in California.
She said, “We saw that ballot collecting or ballot harvesting, the way they describe it in legislation … was passed into [California] law in 2016.”
The new legislation resulted in “significant wins” for Democrats and progressive candidates that year. After that, “we decided that we would do the same activity at the church because it was legal.”
The California law says that a person can turn in a ballot for any person. Prior law said that you had to be a family member or reside in the same household, but that requirement was abolished with the new legislation. And now there is no limitation on the number of ballots that you can turn in.
Real Impact‘s efforts haven’t been limited to California. Gleason recently told Christian conservatives gathered at the Family Research Council‘s Pray Vote Stand Summit in Washington, D.C., in September there are 17 states where churches can take an active role in ballot collecting.
Tony Perkins, president of FRC, said, “If we want to win, we need to take advantage of the laws.”