Election Day
This morning, I walked into the MSC and turned to go down the stairs to where I work, and there happens to be a lady standing there holding a sign for someone for a judge position. She also has pamphlets in her hand. I realize voting is today, and looking down the hall, sure enough, there is the room clearly marked as the voting place. Then I realize, hey, isn't it illegal to campaign within 100 feet of a voting location? I clock in and ask my boss about it, and he says that I should go inform the judge overseeing the place. I do so, and everyone there says that she is just outside the 100 foot marker and there is nothing they can do about it. Huh. She gets to hit up everyone who wants to walk down that hallway to vote, unless they happen to be coming in the one door in the MSC that is at the other end of the hallway. That would be most of the people coming to vote. Something smells fishy to me, so I go and look up the law online. Sure enough, the law is "...within 100 feet of an outside door through which a voter may enter the building in which a polling place is located." I print this off, with enough of the other law to ensure that people don't mistake it for just something I typed up, get permission from my boss and go back to state my case again.
This time, the assistants agree with me, and ask me to wait on the judge who is busy with some people that are in the wrong place. As I stand there waiting, a guy comes in holding a pamphlet he had gotten from, guess who, the lady standing in the hall. The judge eventually talks to me, and repeats what he said before. After reading the law I had helpfully printed off for him, he says that the one door at the end of the hall they can clearly mark, but that they can't go putting up signs all around the MSC, they have restrictions, and they can't put signs on the grass outside because of tradition. He is saying a lot of this as he is pacing off down the hall toward the campaigner, to make sure she is 100 feet away. I'm sorry, but 1) this is national law, which I am sure takes precedence over tradition, 2) I don't think he pursued the signs thing very thoroughly because you can have lots of signs in the free standing sign holders the MSC provides, you just have to make them or have them made (which we do, for a modest fee). As for outside, he said that 100 feet out was on the grass, and they can't have a sign there. Well, if people can't be on the grass, put the sign as close to that point as possible. They have signs up for football all the time, and I know this is a football state, but surely football doesn't get special rules that wouldn't apply to voting. But I don't say all this, I simply say "Well, you are the judge, I was just voicing my concern, you make the call how you see fit," and go back to work.
He comes in later and says that I was technically correct, but because of the nature of the MSC, he can't go putting up signs everywhere, but if I see any campainers again, I should come get him and he would talk to them. I am technically correct about a law that is supposed to ensure people are able to vote without pressure from campaigners. Riiiight.
Just a bit of a peeved start to the day.
This time, the assistants agree with me, and ask me to wait on the judge who is busy with some people that are in the wrong place. As I stand there waiting, a guy comes in holding a pamphlet he had gotten from, guess who, the lady standing in the hall. The judge eventually talks to me, and repeats what he said before. After reading the law I had helpfully printed off for him, he says that the one door at the end of the hall they can clearly mark, but that they can't go putting up signs all around the MSC, they have restrictions, and they can't put signs on the grass outside because of tradition. He is saying a lot of this as he is pacing off down the hall toward the campaigner, to make sure she is 100 feet away. I'm sorry, but 1) this is national law, which I am sure takes precedence over tradition, 2) I don't think he pursued the signs thing very thoroughly because you can have lots of signs in the free standing sign holders the MSC provides, you just have to make them or have them made (which we do, for a modest fee). As for outside, he said that 100 feet out was on the grass, and they can't have a sign there. Well, if people can't be on the grass, put the sign as close to that point as possible. They have signs up for football all the time, and I know this is a football state, but surely football doesn't get special rules that wouldn't apply to voting. But I don't say all this, I simply say "Well, you are the judge, I was just voicing my concern, you make the call how you see fit," and go back to work.
He comes in later and says that I was technically correct, but because of the nature of the MSC, he can't go putting up signs everywhere, but if I see any campainers again, I should come get him and he would talk to them. I am technically correct about a law that is supposed to ensure people are able to vote without pressure from campaigners. Riiiight.
Just a bit of a peeved start to the day.