U.S. District Court Strikes Down Wyoming’s 300-Foot “No Politics” Zone Around Polling Places

On July 22, U.S. District Court Judge Nancy D. Freudenthal, an Obama appointee, struck down Wyoming’s 300-foot “no politics” zone around polling places on election day. Frank v Buchanan, 2:20cv-138.

Here is the 16-page order. One of the plaintiffs wanted to circulate petitions at the polling place, but 300 feet is such a long distance, the law made that almost impossible. The order also strikes down the ban on large bumper stickers on cars that are parked near the polling place.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a 100-foot zone in 1992, but generally when states require bigger zones, courts strike them down. Thanks to Trent Pool for this news.


Comments

U.S. District Court Strikes Down Wyoming’s 300-Foot “No Politics” Zone Around Polling Places — 10 Comments

  1. ONLY the SCOTUS hacks can issue arbitrary distances ???

    Still NOOO distances in the 1 Amdt.

  2. The ban on write-in voting extends from border to border in nine states.

  3. What about when write in votes are allowed but not properly counted? That’s a dirty trick!

  4. https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-haters-banners-town-called-121119332.html

    Biden Hater’s Banners That Town Called Obscene Can Stay Up, Court Rules
    Ed Shanahan and Tracey Tully
    July 28, 2021, 8:11 AM

    A New Jersey woman can leave up several banners that use what local officials called an obscenity to express her hostility toward President Joe Biden, a state court ruled Tuesday.

    The ruling came after the woman, Andrea Dick of Roselle Park, enlisted the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey to fight a municipal judge’s order that she take the banners off a fence outside the house where she lives with her mother or face $250 a day in fines.
    —–
    Another F word case.

    In person voting — a combat event — getting past all the F word signs, etc. ???

    Another reason to have ALL mail ballots ??? OR, WA, etc. survive.

  5. I have petitioned in Wyoming before, and the second time I was there, I got hassled at the very same location, for the very same reason.

    I was in front of a county government building in Cheyenne, standing on a city sidewalk, and after being there multiple times without a problem, one day a cop came out, barking that I had to leave. The cop then walked over to a person who was in the midst of a signing the petitions for which I was gathering signatures, and ripped the clipboard right out of the hands of the signer, as they were signing. I objected, pointing out that this was illegal, and fortunately the cop gave the board back to the person who was signing, and much to my surprise, the person actually finished signing the petition. They cop yelled at me and said that I had to go across the street, where there were hardly any people, which means I’d get so few signatures that it would not even be worth it to be there. I objected to this, and the cop responded by saying that this county government building had become a polling place, due to early voting for the primary election having started, and that by petitioning there, I was violating Wyoming’s electioneering law. I then pointed out that my petitions were for the general election, NOT for the primary election, and that electioneering is trying to influence the results of an election which is taking place, and since my petitions were NOT for that election, I was not electioneering, but he did not care to listen to reason or logic, and he continued to insist that I had to leave or else be arrested, and since I figured nobody would back me up if I had been arrested, I decided to retreat.

    I am glad to see that this lawsuit was won in Wyoming. It is a difficult state to petition in given the sparse population and the fact that half, or a bit less than half, of the people are not registered to vote. Wyoming is the only state in the country which purges people from the voter rolls if they miss one general statewide election. Also, there are only two ways to register to vote in Wyoming, one can go to their county government building and fill out the voter registration form in front of a county clerk, which few people do, or they can register to vote at the polling places on election day, which is convenient, but they do not really advertise that people can do this, so a lot of the people who live there don’t even know this.

  6. I had thought the name of the judge sounded familiar. Judge Nancy Freudenthal is the wife of former governor Dave Freudenthal, the last Democratic governor of Wyoming. He had included his wife on the list of three names submitted to the Obama decision.

    It is possible that Wyoming has always had a 100-yard limit, but had instituted a 100 foot limit for early voting. Part of the court’s ruling was that the state could provide no rational for this difference. Why could you electioneer within a certain area 90 days when voting was going on, while not on one special day.

    The bumper sticker ruling may have little impact. There may be little parking spaces within 100 feet. They could require the space be left for actual voters.

  7. The state of Maine allows people to gather petition signatures inside polling places on election days. It ought to be like this everywhere.

  8. 100 ft, 200 ft, 300 ft or whatever makes a difference based on the layout of different precincts. In spme places 100 ft is too far, in others 300 ft is diable. Obstructing voters in not legal regardless. 100 ft or 300 ft is an arbitrary limit well outside obstructing. As far as electioneering for a future election vs anything on the ballot that day, that is common prohibited in many iof not all states., It shouldn’t be but it us. I don’t know if anyone sued over that. Maybe they should if not.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.