On May 30, U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Polk Failla, an Obama appointee, struck down the New York law that makes it a crime for anyone to give food, drink, or tobacco to any voter standing in line at the polls on election day. The Brooklyn Branch of the NAACP v Kosinski, s.d., 1:21cv-7667.
Here is the opinion, which is based on the free speech part of the First Amendment. Testimony showed that people who want to give food or drinks to people in line mean to convey the message that voting is important and that the voters waiting patiently should be encouraged. The decision says that there have been elections in which voters waited as long as five hours in order to vote.
The decision also says that New York’s defense of the law is inherently contradictory. On the one hand the state argued that the law isn’t generally enforced, but on the other hand the state insisted the law is necessary. The case had been filed in 2021 and has a considerable amount of evidence. Thanks to DemocracyDocket for the link.
Speaking of NY State law, sentencing for a convicted felon and candidate on the ballot is scheduled for July 11. Lock him up!
Robert K Stock can’t stop trolling.
Commie judge strikes down a law meant to not influence voters. How shocking.
Biden for prison, if you were standing in line to vote and someone gave you a glass of water and asked you to vote for Biden, would you do it? If not, why do you think other individuals would behave any differently than you?
And if you want Trump to be re-elected and you sincerely believe that you could get voters to vote for Trump if you just gave them a glass of water
How many helicopters do we have?
Some people don’t decide until they get to the voting booth. Giving out things of value is just like giving out money. I’m not a late decider, but some people are.
WHAT IF THE FOLKS GIVING OUT FOOD/DRINKS HAVE T-SHIRTS SAYING
VOTE FOR AZ ??? [ATTEMPTED] BRIBES ???
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ONE MORE REASON FOR ALL MAIL BALLOTS.
They would be retards. We need all male voting, and zero mail voting!
No surprise Richard Winger supports this. Anything to help communists.
Who is paying for the water and snacks? Taxpayers?
Richard, should left wing politicians or candidates be allowed to hand out steak to those in line in exchange for their vote? You seem to think yes.
@RW
If the polling place doesn’t have a drinking fountain, there could be bottled water.
Maybe Democrats should give filet mignon to voters in line. Richard Winger supports that.
The decision is a pro-liberty decision.
Why is it that no one who is critical of this decision thinks he or she would change his or her vote just by getting something free, yet those people think other people are different than themselves?
It’s similar to voting fraud accusations. A typical individual does not wish to commit vote fraud, for all kinds of reasons. So why do people think that other people do want to commit vote fraud?
And if it is so important to criminalize giving out food and drink, why is it that New York and Georgia are the only states with laws like this? Why don’t the other 48 states have a similar law?
According to Richard Winger, there has never been any voter fraud whatsoever. He supports bribing people for votes, perhaps at taxpayers expense.
No wonder he voted for Biden.
Would any of you actually pay for lots of steaks, and go out and stand outside a polling place all day, and ask voters to vote for Trump?
HOW ABOUT GIVING OUT CHEAP CANDY BY THE TON ??? CHEAP BRIBE ???
SEE *ANY THING OF VALUE* IN MANY CRIME LAWS.
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TRUMP CONVICTION –
ANY REMAINING *RICH* ELEPHANTS MOVING OUT OF COMMIE STATE REGIMES ???
CA / NY / IL / MA / ETC
Richard Winger – if I was rich enough, I might, or might hire someone to do that.
@RW, I very seldom comment, but I just want to encourage not to let these trolls have recently besieged your comment section get to you. I am 99% sure these comments are from the same 2-3 different individuals, just trying to stir something up. None of what is being said by them makes any logical sense or has any argument to back up what they say whatsoever beyond “commie something democrat something”
Never heard of smokes for votes? Look it up.
Mike T, your comment is substance free and is itself trolling. How many individuals are making which comments is unknown and irrelevant. The only thing that matters is whether any sound logical points are made. I’m providing reasons for my beliefs in response to Richard Winger, who is doing the same from his differing perspective. You’re providing nothing but irrelevant innuendo.
If you have reasons to disagree with anything I said, explain what those are. I don’t really care why you think an unknown number of comments are made by 2 or 3 individuals, or whether my comments are among those, but you can explain the reasons for your 99% certainty if you really care about that.
I don’t understand for what possible purpose anyone would be “stirring something up” here, whatever that means, and I’ve seen zero evidence that Richard Winger is in any way one to let disagreeing comments get to him or is incapable of holding his own in an argument. He’s making his points and if you think they are stronger than the counterpoint, please explain why instead of baseless speculation that only detracts from the discussion.
Communism is like an iceberg, the vast majority is not above board and it can sink our ship as it has so many others.
HOW ABOUT OLDE BOOZE [ OR BAR CREDITS ] FOR FOLKS WAITING IN LINES ???
OR NEW AGE DOPE/MJ ???
TICKETS TO SEE A TAYLOR SWIFT CONCERT — IN SUPER-CLOSE RACES ???
ETC ETC ETC ETC
Richard Winger at 8:20, that point was addressed earlier by logician. There are lots of things I don’t do which other people do. Three are people who wouldn’t vote, but show up in exchange for some incentive. There are people who are not firm in their voting decision but feel compelled to go vote anyway, and can be persuaded while waiting to vote. There are people with different ideas of morality or willingness to break various laws. It makes no sense to say these people don’t exist if they’re not among those who comment here. The people who choose to visit this site, and then furthermore leave comments, are far from a representative sample of all the people out there.
*there are people
I might could hand out some pork in South Georgia. You never know. Negroes love pork just like White folks, and a lot of them are disappointed in Beijing Biden and could be persuaded. Georgia would have to make that legal, of course. But all I’m saying is that there could be some Trump bacon in Macon.
Gary, I believe Richard said he did not vote for Biden. But. I do get the impression he would rank Biden ahead of Trump in a ranked choice vote. He can of course correct this impression if it’s wrong.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/cartoons/2024/05/30/trump-verdict-donald-trump-hush-money-case/73912622007/
TRUMP FELON CARTOONS
MORE FOLKS ON TRUMP PURGE LISTS ???
The last paragraph at 8:20 is a good question which I don’t know the answer to. Maybe those states had widely publicized incidents leading to those laws. Maybe they just happened to have politicians who at some point made it a priority. Would Richard Winger categorically state that there are not now and never have been laws in only two states that are good?
Off hand, I seem to recall Mr Winger is a proponent of legalizing medical and recreational cannabis. At some point, there were only two states in which each was legal. If I’m incorrect about his marijuana positions, think of another example. Many laws start in only a couple of states. There must be some of those now or in the past Richard Winger is or was in favour of.
820
MOST/ALL STATES HAVE GENERAL ANTI-BRIBERY ELECTION LAW SECTIONS
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MICH ELECTION LAW – PARTS – MCL SECTIONS
168.931 Prohibited conduct; violation as misdemeanor; “valuable consideration” defined.
Sec. 931.
(1) An individual who violates 1 or more of the following subdivisions is guilty of a misdemeanor:
(a) An individual shall not, either directly or indirectly, give, lend, or promise valuable consideration to or for any individual as an inducement to influence the manner of voting by an individual relative to a candidate or ballot question or as a reward for refraining from voting.
(b) An individual shall not, either before, on, or after an election, for the individual’s own benefit or on behalf of any other individual, receive, agree, or contract for valuable consideration for 1 or more of the following:
(i) Voting or agreeing to vote, or inducing or attempting to induce another to vote, at an election.
(ii) Refraining or agreeing to refrain, or inducing or attempting to induce another to refrain, from voting at an election.
(iii) Doing anything prohibited by this act.
(iv) Both distributing absent voter ballot applications to voters and receiving signed applications from voters for delivery to the appropriate clerk or assistant of the clerk. This subparagraph does not apply to an authorized election official.
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(4) As used in this section, “valuable consideration” includes, but is not limited to, money, property, a gift, a prize or chance for a prize, a fee, a loan, an office, a position, an appointment, or employment.
168.932 Prohibited conduct; violation as felony.
Sec. 932. A person who violates 1 or more of the following subdivisions is guilty of a felony:
(a) A person shall not attempt, by means of bribery, menace, or other corrupt means or device, either directly or indirectly, to influence an elector in giving his or her vote, or to deter the elector from, or interrupt the elector in giving his or her vote at any election held in this state.
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MERE DRINKS AND FOOD A BRIBE OR A ***VALUABLE CONSIDERATION*** ???
Is offering food to those waiting to vote an attempt to influence their vote? Probably yes.
Are many people who can be bothered to wait in line to vote going to be influenced by being offered food? Of course not.
Imagine being angry about this ruling because you believe such tactics work.
Mike T, apparently RW feels this site needs a comment feature. It is probably the best argument for spending the money to subscribe to the Ballot Access News print edition to avoid having to see this foolishness.
Banning the AZ bot would really clean up the garbage comments.
Nuna, yes, such tactics work. The places where there are long waiting lines to vote are generally poor, Negro areas. I’ve never waited in line to vote or heard of any long lines in White areas regardless of income level (with the possible exception of some college precincts) or boogie negro areas.
In those places, the question for many has in recent decades been not who they would vote for but whether they would vote at all, especially if there is a long wait. Right now, for the first time since the 1960s, I’m encountering a lot of poor negroes who are planning to vote Republican for president or considering it seriously.
They feel like Biden has made things worse with inflation and let in a lot of foreigners to take jobs from them and increase crime. They say things like “he ain’t done nothing for us” and “thangs wuz better under Trump.” Some of them actually see Trump being unjustly convicted of felonies as being very relatable.
So, getting that last minute bribe in line to vote a) keeps them from walking off b) reminds them about who gibs out da gibs so they remember to vote ass backwards and don’t wander off Massa Joe’s plantation.
N, how hard it is it for people who feel the comments detract from the site to read the articles and not scroll down? I generally do not scroll down to comments most news sites I read. Do you? Try taking responsibility for your own reading habits instead of trying to shut up people with opinions you don’t like, you commie fascist troll.
Black people aren’t stupid. If they feel Biden has made things worse for them and relate to Trump being unjustly convicted strongly enough to stand in line to go vote, then they are not going to be swayed last minute by such a transparent bribe.
Well, actually, many of them are stupid. It is politically incorrect to discuss racial IQ average differences, but the research is readily available for those of you who don’t deal with the reality in a daily basis for employment related or other such reasons.
But being stupid isn’t necessary to experience conflicting feelings about candidates in an election. Over the next few months, they will be bombarded with advertising and personal appeals from relatives, friends, community leaders etc to herd them back on the plantation. Many may still be experiencing doubts even while waiting to vote, in addition to whether or how long they are Willing to wait. None of that is necessarily stupidity – it’s just trying to break free from a decades long abusive relationship, which in practice is often very difficult and fraught with a lot of back and forth backsliding etc.
Very intelligent people experience similar issues with bad marriages, toxic relationships, all sorts of addiction problems, etc. Voting for the welfare plantation party is quite similar in many ways, before you even get to the truly stupid ones – and, yes, there are many of those. You can posit genetic differences, poor education systems, bad parenting, cultural factors (studying hard in school as “acting white,”) environmental issues from lead paint to whatever else, or any number or combination of things, but the fact that there are a lot of unintelligent negroes is readily observable through any amount of direct personal interactions with large numbers of them. Not that there is any shortage of equally dumb White folks, but on a proportional basis, there’s an inverse relationship between melanin and IQ.
I feel like we are getting rather off-topic here, but “intelligence quotient” is a complete misnomer. IQ does not measure intelligence at all, and it also does not take into account the street smarts to see that someone is trying to manipulate you into voting a certain way.
I really cannot imagine there being any overlap between the people who would be willing to wait inline to vote and the people who would exchange their vote for handouts. If anything they would be pushed away by such an insultingly low opinion of them and vote the opposite.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/31/politics/former-second-in-command-us-navy-arrested-bribery-charges/index.html
BIIIIG BRIBE CHARGE – EX USA NAVY – TOP ADM.
ABOVE 6.66 IQ — BEING ABLE TO MAKE A BAN POST WITHOUT TOO MANY TROLL MORON ERRORS ???
There are many measures of intelligence. Some people eventually give up waiting in line. Some wait in line, still conflicted over which is the least bad option. There is still an opportunity to influence the decision of at least some people in line – as to whether to remain in line or go home, and as to how to vote if they wait long enough to get there. Giving people tangible incentives is a form of influence. Again, try looking up smokes for votes. Vote harvesting is much more sophisticated than in Tammany Hall days, but the general principles have not changed.
@RW,
You are no doubt familiar with the initialism TANSTAAFL.
At one time, working men were given a glass of watered-down beer, a hard-boiled egg, and a hunk of bread, along with a party ballot, which they would go place in the ballot box. The might or might not to be inclined to vote for that party, but they might mostly be declined to stay home.
It is not clear from the statute that “drinks” refers to water at all. Maybe you are a teetotaler and “drinks” means water. But since it is a sentence with “meat” and “tobacco” it probably refers to something with greater alcohol content.
Maybe you are OK with a party handing out a sandwich, a couple of cans of beer, and a few cigarettes to persons they recognize as party members who show up at the polls, while ignoring non-members.
The Florida law only restricts non-election workers from handing out food and water. A better solution would be to have a drinking fountain or a water cooler at polling places. At worst you could have election workers handing out food if there were long lines. The county election officials could deliver extra food, just like they deliver extra ballots. The Florida law only applies within the 150-foot buffer. By allowing “some” persons to be within that buffer, you are making it possible for numerous persons to be hanging out for all kinds of ostensible reasons, requiring monitoring by election officials.
@RW,
Arkansas and Montana and Florida have similar laws.