VOTERS AT THE RATE OF ABOUT ONE PER MINUTE – Election officials today (Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011) at the Lower Pottsgrove Municipal Building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Sanatoga (District 4, above), and the Wesleyan Christian Church, 1301 Hilltop Dr., Pottstown (District 3, below), say voters were waiting at the doors promptly by 8 this morning to cast their ballots in local elections. Only a half-hour later, by 8:30, 39 voters had already signed in at the municipal building, and 36 at the church. Opening of the polls at the church was delayed for a few minutes because of set-up difficulties, poll workers there said.
Let’s get this straight, is there or is there not a rule or law that all these election placards have to be a certain distance away from a polling place and no closer? If so what is that distance and why is it not enforced?
I love voting, I served in the military, feel there’s no higher duty of every citizen.
Ed, here’s what I learned today about Pennsylvania election law:
1) “Only election officials, persons in the course of voting (not to exceed 10 at one time), persons giving assistance to voters, and police officers in the act of voting or who have been called to preserve the peace, are allowed within 10 feet of the polling place while voting is in progress. Everyone else, including individuals handing out campaign literature, must remain at least 10 feet away.” 25 PA. STAT. ANN. ยงยง 3060, 3529. See here:
http://www.advancementproject.org/sites/default/files/Legal%20protections%20against%20vote%20suppression%20in%20PA.pdf
I interpret the above to mean that signs, a form of campaign “literature,” must also be at least 10 feet away from the polling place. If correct, I can attest the signs were at least 10 feet away from the entrances of District 4 (the municipal building) and District 3 (the Wesleyan Church). I didn’t get to Ringing Hill (District 1) or Berean (District 2) yesterday, so I can’t speak to them.
However, I can also attest that campaign volunteers at both sites were less than 5 feet from the entrances, and therefore in violation when I saw them at 8:30 a.m.
2) Pennsylvania law prohibits what is called “electioneering” INSIDE a polling place. Specifically, as of 2005, the law reads that “No person, when within the polling place, shall electioneer or solicit votes for any political party, political body or candidate, nor shall any written or printed matter be posted up within the said room.” See here:
http://law.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4685&context=expresso
In more than two decades as a Lower Pottsgrove resident, I have never witnessed an “electioneering” violation.
3) The Pennsylvania ACLU in 2008 asked then-Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro Cortes to further define electioneering, and challenged the current law’s constitutionality. See here:
http://www.aclupa.org/downloads/Cortesletter.pdf
I have not learned what became of the challenge.