'Super Sunday' draws in early-voters from local church communities

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- On Sunday, dozens of members of South Bend church communities visited the County-City Building to cast their ballots ahead of Tuesday's election.

These congregations' members were encouraged by their faith leaders to vote as a part of a program called Super Sunday, which began in 2017.

The program not only asks churches to encourage their members to vote, but also prompts them to provide transportation to the County-City Building following their last service of the day. 

Organizers believe that transportation to the voting center is a crucial part of creating a direct line of cooperation between the church and municipal government. 

Super Sunday leader and at-large Councilwoman, Karen L. White, also emphasized the event as a non-partisan effort and did not ask any church community attendee to vote for a specific party. 

"Our focus was more on civic engagement, getting the information out, we didn't want this to become political. As you notice in the press release, we did not say to come out and vote for this person or that person or be a democrat or whatever, no. The issue was, come out and vote." said Councilwoman White. 

While it's difficult to pinpoint exactly how well Super Sunday's outreach affected Sunday's attendance numbers, election officials did note that the cumulative early voting numbers in 2023 are already almost double the number of absentee voters recorded during the entire 2019 election. 

Anyone who still wants to cast their ballot early can visit the County-City Building and has until 12 p.m. Monday to do so.