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No electioneering at the polls, but some can’t help it

Posted on November 4th, 2008 – 4:32 PM
By James Shiffer

A rolling political billboard and barker came a bit too close to the polls in the experience of some voters. Here’s voter D. Paul reporting from Minneapolis:

At the Marcy Open School polling location in Minneapolis, I believe that supporters of the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment were blatantly violating the law by driving by the polling location with a vehicle equipped with speakers and a HUGE “VOTE YES” billboard attached to the roof urging people to vote yes for the amendment. I imagine they pulled the same stunt at other polling locations. Is it not illegal to do things like that?

Electioneering within 100 feet of the polling location is a no-no. Same goes for political buttons, which at least one voter at Redeemer Bible Church in Minnetonka saw in the inner polling sanctum. Given the hordes of voters, the judges could be forgiven, I think, for not catching every fashion violation.

Post a message here if you’ve seen other infringements on the no-politicking zone.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 at 4:32 pm and is filed under Election Day, Polling problems. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

7 Responses to “No electioneering at the polls, but some can’t help it”

  1. Stine Says:
    November 4th, 2008 at 4:41 pm

    I was at the poll early this morning at 6:30 AM. The scanner was not working and we were told to drop our ballots into a slot under the scanner. I looked at the judge and she said..”They will be counted”. Still I worry and pray that it is not a scam and my vote will be counted. My voting place is at Brooklyn methodist Church. Funny all the years I have been voting there this year is the first time there has ever been a problem. My kid who in the last election as not even on the list???? See it is that type of stuff that makes one thing something dirty is going on.

  2. Joe Hesse Says:
    November 4th, 2008 at 4:42 pm

    Other than the Obama supporter (big bumper sticker) in the hybrid subcompact that stole my parking space in Chaska, I didn’t have any problems.

  3. Stine Says:
    November 4th, 2008 at 4:43 pm

    I was at the poll early this morning at 6:30 AM. The scanner was not working and we were told to drop our ballots into a slot under the scanner. I looked at the judge and she said..”They will be counted”. Still I worry and pray that it is not a scam and my vote will be counted. My voting place is at Brooklyn Methodist Church. Funny all the years I have been voting there this year is the first time there has ever been a problem. My kid who did vote in the last election name was not even on the list???? See it is that type of stuff that makes one think something dirty is going on.

  4. swschrad Says:
    November 4th, 2008 at 4:47 pm

    I was an election count observer 4 years ago. what happens is they look at the counts on the machine, and then they look at the additional bin, in which write-in boxes were checked. and those are manually tabulated and added to the totals.

    if your machine died, the likely outcome in this state of responsibility is that your ballots will be run through another system if the slit went to the big bin. if it went into the little one, they will be passed through after they got the scanner working.

    you could check with the Secretary of State’s website or office if you’re really concerned.

    I made sure myself not to electioneer, including parking my car with bumper stickers on it way over in the city hall lot, several hundred yards from the polling door.

  5. Chad Says:
    November 4th, 2008 at 4:53 pm

    I was at the poll at Life Church on Valley View Road in Eden Prairie this morning. And right along the Life Church driveway which connected to Baker Road was three McCain - Palin yard signs.

  6. Wendy Brown Says:
    November 4th, 2008 at 5:27 pm

    In front of Deephaven City Hall a guy parked a vehicle with a canoe on top with large Paulsen signs all over it. Twenty feet from the door.

  7. Christin Urban Says:
    November 4th, 2008 at 5:46 pm

    I was wondering the same things…does it count if the signs promoting your candidate are on your lawn? it is your property? I think the whole thing is stupid anyway if you need to look at someones shirt to know who to vote for we have some big problems…i say let us wear our political gear freely.

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