Melanie! Many thanks for your well-considered comment. Much of what you say is very true. But regarding your final note about not taking religion into the voting booth, I don’t think that makes sense. For many people religion is a big part of who they are. You cannot ask people to put those values aside when voting; voting is such an expression of one’s values. I think religion tends to confuse people’s values because so much is grounded in falsehood. As an atheist myself, I feel that my values are very clear and well grounded in reason.