Bullhorn at the polling place?,
originally uploaded by Kate O’.
Doesn’t this violate at least the spirit of the “no soliciting votes within 100 feet” rule?
ETA: I know the picture doesn’t get the details across, but the people in the blue tent are campaigning for Erica Gilmore for a District 19 Council seat, and one of the guys in the tent has a bullhorn he’s using to address voters as they enter the church-cum-polling-place across the street. He very clearly asked me and Karsten to “vote for Gilmore” as we were entering the polling place. I don’t know how that law is enforced, but I don’t get the impression that this dude is in full compliance.
Bullhorn at the polling place?
You should have seen the madness at the Hermitage Public Library. All the crazed At Large campaigners completely ignored the 100 ft boundary rule.
Which is why I voted for none of them. Including the guy who parked his truck with a giant sign in the back bed in the middle of the parking lot about 20ft inside the boundary. When I told him he was within the boundary he claimed that the law was “100ft from the curtain of the polling booth”, not the door of the polling place. Asshole.
I think it definitely violates the spirit. I’m not sure about the law. In my opinion, it’s definitely not a welcome sight near the polling place. Who knows, it might backfire, too. (It would with me if I had been there.)
Rob Robinson
http://thinktrain.net
Assuming that the “no electioneering” signs (which mark the boundary, not the center, of the zone established by the Elections Board) are on the door of the building, I think that this guy is in compliance, although not so much if the door were propped open.
Enforcement of the law begins with a voter alerting the sworn election officials at the polling station. My bet is that they would register your complaint but even the opposition party would consider this an acceptable situation. I think that the “spirit” of the electioneering law is much more about universal access and no voter intimidation, and a soundproofed building and campaigners across the street is compliant with those goals.
Like everyone else has suggested, though, if it’s been a grueling campaign season and some asshat is annoying voters to get the last word in and skirting the “sanctity” of the polling place at the same time, that candidate is just as likely to be losing points with the average undecided voter.
Where’s a referee to blow a whistle and throw a yellow flag and penalize them 10 yards?
Solution: threaten to get the cops to come by and tazer them to death.
(Still bitter about that)
Way back when California had an initiative on the ballot to create the state lottery and legalize Bingo for non-profit orgs my polling place was at an ethnic community center with a big banner on the wall advertising their still illegal Bingo Night. I jokingly pointed the banner out to a poll worker who cringed and replied that they had hoped no one would notice it.
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