By Terri Harber, The Roswell Daily Record — This order of Catholic nuns focuses on God and his message of helping others. Their presence at a polling place on Tuesday made many people smile.
The Chaves County Administrative Center bustled with activity on Tuesday morning as voters came and went. People brought their relatives, neighbors and friends to the polling place to participate in the 2026 General Election.
Lines of voters were sometimes a little long, as people obtained their ballots to fill out, then fed their completed ballots into a scanner. But both lines also moved quickly.
Virtually everyone in the voting area briefly stopped what they were doing, looked around and smiled as nuns from the Poor Clare Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe made their way through the building and the various voting stations.
The reason for such interest is that the Roswell Poor Clares are a cloistered and contemplative order of nuns. They rarely leave the monastery. Not for groceries, to see a movie or to attend a family event — not even a relative’s funeral.
Not standing in line for milk and bread or skipping the latest Marvel film are among the many lifestyle choices made by these Catholic nuns who vow to commit themselves profoundly to God by helping those in need.
“Such is the life of the contemplative Poor Clare. Her mission is to be God’s, to let Him shine through her on all the darkness of misery which shrouds the world,” the monastery’s website explains.
Volunteers drive the nuns to and from the county center’s voting location because there are no vehicles at the monastery. About 20 of the Poor Clare nuns went out to vote on Election Day. This election was somewhat different for them because each group traveled relatively close together. Usually, the groups of nuns arrive and leave the polling place with more time between each vehicle reaching the county center and then returning to the monastery.
“It’s important to us,” explained Mother Mary Angela, the abbess of the Poor Clare monastery, in a phone interview to the Roswell Daily Record on Tuesday. “And we were happy to see so many people there.”
This election has been widely considered potentially transformative, both politically and for the nation itself. The message most often repeated by the media and pundits was that this time, participation in this election was extremely critical.
That wasn’t why the nuns were there. The nuns consider voting to be a civic duty, she said.
Other valid reasons for having to go outside of the religious sanctuary for a short period are visits to the doctor or dentist or to receive other physical care or testing available only by going somewhere to receive it, for example, she explained.
Family members can visit their cloistered loved ones at the monastery.
“God takes care of us,” Mother Mary Angela also said. “And we like it here.”
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