Currently, Alabama law permits petitioning and other activity at the polls on election day, as long as the petitioners or canvassers are at least 30 feet from the polling location. Representative Jack Williams (R-Birmingham) has introduced HB 44, to increase the prohibited zone to 150 feet from the polling location.
That will have the affect of not allowing political activity in the parking area of a great number of polling locations. As someone from Alabama and someone who has done election day “outreach” – I can tell you that at many locations in Birmingham, “the 30 foot from the door” rule places activists and other campaigners half way to the street. The 150 foot rule would place them across the street or to the opposite side of the parking lot.
This needs to be defeated!
Are ALL gerrymander regimes now the Enemies of the People and Democracy ???
P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
Petitioning at polling places is a good way to get signatures, and this jerk wants to make it more difficult to do this. Alabama already has some of the most difficult ballot access laws for minor party and independent candidates in the country. What an ass this guy is. Somebody should make him stand out in the hot, humid Alabama weather in the summer and tell him that he has to personally gather 2,000 valid signatures in a week in order to keep his job. If he had to do this I bet he’d change his tune pretty quick.
Who determines how many feet is acceptable for a “no-politics” zone? I echo the sentiments above. Stick with the status quo.
I wonder what Alabama Indy’s take is on this.
#3 Why would a voter want to stand out in the hot, humid sun, standing next to someone with a clipboard who has been standing there for 10 hours?
30 feet from the entrance, egress may be constrained by bushes, etc., so a mob of solicitors at 30 feet is just as problematic as if they were blocking the doors. If there is a table, or sun umbrella, coolers, the sidewalk may be practically blocked. Add in 100s of political signs and it could be intimidating for many voters.
It is quite possible that at some polling places a line of voters might extend outside the door. 30 feet would represent perhaps a dozen persons in line.
To No. 4 . Says: I’m not going to risk making any Republicans mad over HB 44, because we need them to help pass SB 15 and SB 55 to help give independents and 3rd party candidates an easier access to the General Election Ballot in Alabama.
Right now all of us need to contact the members of the CONSTITUTION, CAMPAIGN FINANCE, ETHICS AND ELECTIONS COMMITTEE and ask for these committee members to vote for either SB 15 and/or SB 55.
The members names and email addresses of these Senators are:
Bryan Taylor <bryan.taylor@alsenate.org
Phil Williams <philw.williams@alsenate.gov
Paul Bussman <p_bussman@bellsouth.net
Shadrack Mcgill shadrick.mcgill@alsenate.org
Trip Pittman <trip.pittman@alsenate.gov
Tammy Irons<tammy@ironslawfirm.com
Two senators who are members of this committee and who do not have accessible email addresses. However their names and telephone numbers are:
Billy Williams (334) 775-3291
Arthur Orr (334) 242-7891
I trust all who can will contact these senators and ask them to support these good bills.
Why would a voter want to stand out in the hot, humid sun, standing next to someone with a clipboard who has been standing there for 10 hours?
No one is obligated to stand next to a petitioner outside the polling place. They can simply walk by if it bothers them.
Simple fixes are
1) Eliminate the onerous petitioning requirements, allowing parties to qualify and retain a place on the ballot with much easier thresholds, including a filing fee alternative of less than $100,
and/or
2) Allow petitioning inside the air conditioned polling place, as Maine does.
Having collected hundreds of signatures at a time on election day, several times, including in Alabama (sometimes in the summer) among other states, I don’t think too many people had a problem standing next to me for a few seconds, and the ones that did were free to walk away at any time.
It may, as a start, be good to do away with legislative chambers and require legislators to meet outdoors. As a bonus they should at random intervals be chased off whatever public or private outdoor area they choose to meet in.
@6 will do.
30 feet from the entrance, egress may be constrained by bushes, etc., so a mob of solicitors at 30 feet is just as problematic as if they were blocking the doors. If there is a table, or sun umbrella, coolers, the sidewalk may be practically blocked. Add in 100s of political signs and it could be intimidating for many voters.
It is quite possible that at some polling places a line of voters might extend outside the door. 30 feet would represent perhaps a dozen persons in line.
Not even close to being the case at any of the dozens of polling places I have personally worked. Nor at any of the hundreds of others I have either surveyed for work or stopped by to check up on petitioners when managing campaigns, both as a volunteer and as a paid manager.
And once again we are petitioners, not solicitors. Petitioning is not soliciting and may not be treated as such. Soliciting always involves asking the general public for money. Whether a petitioner is paid by a client or petition company or not, petitioning is still not, never was and never will be soliciting.
It’s also not electioneering, which is the spurious logic applied by poll workers and election judges to keep us 30, or however many, feet away. Electioneering is agitation on behalf of a candidate, party or ballot measure being voted on ****in that election****. Allowing a candidate, party or ballot measure to be a choice for the voters in the following election is in no way shape or form electioneering.
#9 How are they going to sort out if you are agitating on behalf of a candidate at that election, or some other election? Can you electioneer for Obama at the recall election in Wisconsin? And why should solicitation of signatures for a casino proposition have some privileged status over soliciting contributions for research of some dread disease, or simply panhandling?
100 feet is a reasonable limit, only 10 feet more than the distance between the bases.
Petition is a verb (at least as used in the 1st Amendment) Persons who petition (ie we, the undersigned) are petitioners.
Why do you reject the term “solicitor”? What is the difference between someone asking me whether I want to contribute to their cause with $$$, or with my signature, which indicates my endorsement.