HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – More than two-thirds of AL.com readers who responded to an online poll say atheists should be allowed to give the invocation at government meetings.

Kelly McCauley, a Huntsville aerospace engineer and board member of the North Alabama Freethought Association, is scheduled to offer the invocation at tonight's Huntsville City Council meeting. It is believed to be the first time an atheist has been asked to give the invocation at a government function in Alabama.

McCauley is expected to address the council at the outset of the 6 p.m. meeting. Click here to watch live.

On Wednesday, AL.com asked readers if atheists should be allowed to give invocations at government meetings. Sixty-seven percent of poll respondents answered "yes" – that people of all faiths, as well as non-believers, deserve that right.

Twenty-eight percent said invocations are best left up to Christian ministers. Five percent said they agree with Huntsville asking non-Christian religious leaders to give the invocation but think inviting an atheist goes too far.

A total of 2,412 votes were cast in the unscientific online poll between 9:45 a.m. Wednesday and 3:45 p.m. Thursday.

The American Atheists began pushing Huntsville last year to add secular speakers to the list of local religious leaders who offer an invocation – usually in the form of a short prayer -- at the outset of City Council meetings.

Their position gained traction in May, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Town of Greece vs. Galloway that public prayer before government meetings is Constitutional – as long as the opportunity to deliver the invocation is open to anyone, "including an atheist."