LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — A church from Lansing is at the center of controversy as people claim it supported a political candidate — again.
A post online is accusing a Lansing church of fundraising and supporting a City Council member during Tuesday’s election.
If true, the church could be at risk to face criminal charges.
Dozens of locations across the city served as voting centers, including Tabernacle of David Church on the south side. But it wasn’t without its issues, as someone accused the church of promoting a candidate that attends their services.
A recent story in the Lansing City Pulse claimed the church was fundraising for City Council candidate Tamera Carter.
Now, some say the church, which is used as a precinct, placed her brochure near the polls.
“I got a call from the Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum, I want to say after 7 o’clock on election night, and she indicated that she had received a notification that there was campaign material at one of our polling places,” said Lansing City Clerk Chris Swope.
Michigan election laws state that no polling place can support a candidate, whether that be by fundraising or displaying campaign materials within 100-feet of the entrance.
Swope says these were serious accusations, so he sent someone to check it out.
“I did get a report back, and they indicated that the materials were not in an area that voters would pass through,” Swope said.
When I reached out to the church for an interview, its representatives declined.
But they did confirm that Carter attends services there.
Church leaders said the person who filed the complaint had gone into a restricted area.
“The person who reported it to me did not know who the person was, but someone had gone past a roped-off areas that were designating where voters should be and the materials were beyond that area,” Swope said.
Swope says it appears that the church did nothing wrong when it come to the literature.
“It doesn’t appear our polling place on election day committed anything that we need to be concerned about. When things are left out, it is not necessarily the building leaving it. It’s sometimes the voter leaving something behind or a candidate leaving something behind,” Swope said.
Even though the church was cleared of any wrongdoing by Lansing, these accusations could lead to an IRS investigation that could risk its tax-exempt status.
