# Question re: polling station rules. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 6, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-re-polling-station-rules/471476 "2008-11-06T17:25:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-re-polling-station-rules/471476/21 "2008-11-07T15:21:33Z")
Strictness of the laws can vary by state; [Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/politics/ballot/electioneering.asp) covered this and provided a link to rules from two years ago. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-re-polling-station-rules/471476/22 "2008-11-07T16:37:23Z")
**An Gadaí** , as mentioed by **Ferret Herder** , the Snopes article linked to above has a link to a paper on the [Constitutionality of State Laws](http://law.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4685&context=expresso) (PDF) on the subject. While I didn’t read the paper, and it seems to be very left-leaning, the footnotes have snips of the relevant laws from all (?) fifty states as of 2006. You could find the law from your girlfriend’s state. For what it’s worth, [Michigan’s law was recently upheld](http://blog.mlive.com/a2politics/2008/10/judge_political_tshirts_banned.html): > [@](#): > > State law requires candidates and campaign material be kept at least 100 feet from any entrance to a polling place. This, on the other hand: > [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > We also prohibited any discussion or mention of candidates by name. Someone was talking about the recent death of Illinois senator Dick Durbin’s daughter, and one of the judges shushed them since Durbin was on the ballot, up for re-election. Shushing people engaged in private conversation? It sounds to me like they’ve crossed the line into a violation of the right to free speech. None of the laws in the PDF above seem to justify this\*. The footnote for Illinois in particular reads > [@](#): > > No person shall do any electioneering or soliciting of votes on primary day within any polling place or within one hundred feet of any polling place This doesn’t seem to cover what you saw. (\*) Well, North Carolina’s law reads (bolding mine) > [@](#): > > No person or group of persons shall hinder access, harass others, distribute campaign literature, place political advertising, solicit votes, or otherwise engage in **election-related activity** in the voting place. :dubious: I would call voting “election-related activity”, so I’m not sure what of make of that. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-re-polling-station-rules/471476/23 "2008-11-07T21:40:42Z")
How do you define “private conversation?” Clearly, we can restrict otherwise “free” speech in time, place and manner, and one of the restrictions constitutionally permissible is to restrict electioneering within a certain distance of a polling place. It’s not going to matter if that speech is “private” or not. How would you draw that line? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-re-polling-station-rules/471476/24 "2008-11-07T22:46:03Z")
> [@howye](#): > > Last time I worked at the polls, a local pizza shop was going around and giving free food to all of the polling places near the store. He had to have given away hundreds of dollars of food. At the polling place I was observing at, there was a large delivery of Dunkin Donuts in mid-morining, much appreciated by all, though I do not know who paid for it and exactly where it came from. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-re-polling-station-rules/471476/25 "2008-11-07T22:46:30Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > How do you define “private conversation?” Clearly, we can restrict otherwise “free” speech in time, place and manner, and one of the restrictions constitutionally permissible is to restrict electioneering within a certain distance of a polling place. It’s not going to matter if that speech is “private” or not. How would you draw that line? :dubious: From [Meriam-Webster](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/electioneering), electioneering means “to work for the election of a candidate or party”. Simply mentioning the name of a candidate does not automatically become electioneering. Surely the law is able to distinguish between the two? Just as surely, the context of how the speech is used is important. Announcing to all the people present that a candidate’s daughter has died is different than mentioning it in the normal course of a conversation between two people. Now **C K Dexter Haven** didn’t actually _say_ it was a normal conversation, but that’s certainly how I took it. As to how to draw the line between private speech and not, I would think you’d need to look at intent. A general announcement, or someone going from person to person, and actively bringing up the subject, would be evidence of that intent. I think the law would have to make the distinction between electioneering and not (of which he distinction between private and public speech is one component), because the government has an interest in ensuring fair elections, but there’s that pesky first amendment right which needs to be balanced against that interest. You shouldn’t infringe on the later for no benefit to the former. Are you really arguing that making that distinction isn’t possible? ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-re-polling-station-rules/471476/26 "2008-11-07T23:54:20Z")
Yes, it was a normal conversation, but it was about the news, and relating to a candidate. I personally think the judge was being over-zealous, but I wasn’t about to start an argument about it. It can clearly be viewed as electioneering, raising up sympathy for the candidate, etc. We did have a candidate visit our polling place, he’s running (unopposed) for sanitary district and he was city mayor for many years. He did walk around a bit and greet people he knew, but that was mostly the election officials; his wife was a judge. I didn’t think of it as electioneering, although I guess it could have been interpreted as such. ---
**Author:** ![Telcontar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Telcontar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telcontar)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-re-polling-station-rules/471476/27 "2008-11-08T00:48:09Z")
"State law requires candidates and campaign material be kept at least 100 feet from any entrance to a polling place. " I find this amusing, as it technically forbids candidates from voting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-re-polling-station-rules/471476.md?page=1)