(JTA) – A polling site in a New York City neighborhood was moved after some Jewish voters raised concerns about violating their religious beliefs by having to enter the building.
Residents of the Kew Gardens Hills sections of Queens will now vote at the Kew Gardens Hills Library rather than St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church, according to the Times Ledger, a newspaper in Queens.
“It’s an issue for certain people that religiously don’t feel it’s right to ask them to vote in a church,” state Assemblyman Michael Simanowitz (D-Queens) told the newspaper.
Simanowitz has been helping the city Board of Elections identify alternate polling places.
The area’s previous polling place can no longer be used because the U.S. Justice Department said it was not handicap-accessible, as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
