Elections and the democratic process are important to UU Congregations. However, as religious groups with non-profit status there are rules all congregations must follow to protect your tax status. Here are some recommended resources from the UUA's Washington Office.
The IRS places certain restrictions on what congregations can do, and those boundaries need to be respected. However, there is a wide range of totally acceptable activities. The basic rule of thumb is this - Congregations and religious groups can advocate and campaign on issues but they cannot support a specific candidate. But read the Real Rules to be certain your activity is ok.
The Real Rules - In order to provide congregations with the best guidance possible, theUUA has released an updated edition of "The Real Rules: Congregations and IRS Guidelines on Advocacy, Lobbying, and Elections." The new version provides clear, up-to-date information on what congregations can and cannot do, drawing heavily on a binding decision issued by the IRS in June 2007. Most of the text comes straight from IRS publications, with sources clearly footnoted. Please discard previous editions and usethe new one! You can access "The Real Rules" online at http://www.uua.org/action/realrules/index.shtml.
Faithful Democracy (http://www.faithfuldemocracy.org/) is a nonpartisan online clearinghouse made up of national faith-based organizations. The goal of Faithful Democracy is to educate and engage people of faith about the role they can and should play in the democratic process, thereby increasing the number of informed faith-based voters in elections.
The Faithful Democracy website features resources from member organizations on what religious groups can do and how they can do it, including voter registration, education, mobilization, and poll monitoring. The site also features theological reflections from a variety of religious leaders on the connections between civic participation and religious values. The Unitarian Universalist Association helped to found Faithful Democracy in 2004 and remains an active participant. This site is only typically active during national election years.
