Tenth Circuit US Court of Appeals Upholds Wyoming 300 Feet Electioneering Ban Outside Election Day Polling Places

Posted on by October 24, 2023

Tenth Circuit Upholds Wyoming Electioneering Law is the opinion issued today, Monday, October 23, 2023. Here is the 64-page opinion.

The decision does not decide whether the 300 foot limit is constitutional for places in which early voting is occurring. The panel sent the case back to the U.S. District Court to consider that.

This has bad implications for people circulating political petitions, as petitioning is included as a prohibited activity in Wyoming’s electioneering law. Polling places can be outstanding petitioning locations, as everyone going in or out should be a registered voter.

I have had some outstanding petitioning days outside polling places. On August 8, 2023, the day of the Issue 1 Constitutional Amendment vote in Ohio, I gathered 350 signatures in 13 hours outside a Toledo high school.

On Election Day 1996, at the polling place at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, I gathered 1,179 signatures (the polling place was too small for the number of voters voting there, and a line formed outside that lasted many hours).

With a 100 foot electioneering ban from a polling place’s entrance door (which was the case in Ohio, with an even shorter required distance in North Carolina, as I recollect), petitioning for good numbers is feasible. But, a 300 foot ban would greatly reduce feasible signature production.

I also question why petitioning should be banned within any distance of a polling place’s entrance door, as long as the petitioner is not blocking anyone’s entrance or exit from the polling place and the subject of the petition is not on the ballot on that day’s election.

Thanks to electionlawblog.org for the original post on this.

Comments

Tenth Circuit US Court of Appeals Upholds Wyoming 300 Feet Electioneering Ban Outside Election Day Polling Places — 22 Comments

  3. Wasn’t there a Supreme Court ruling about this at some point? I vaguely recall reading that here at some point but not when or any details.

  4. Electioneering laws should only pertain to issues and candidates in the election taking place that day.

  11. Isn’t there are similar restriction on free speech/political activities by a US Post Office?

  12. Wow! This is blatantly unconstitutional. What is so ridiculous about this is if one is gathering signatures on a petition to place an issue or candidate on the ballot for a future election, as in NOT the one taking place at that time, then by definition one is NOT electioneering for the election which is taking place at that time as they are not trying to influence the result of that election.

    All states should be like Maine in regard to gathering petition signatures at polling places, as in Maine petition circulators can stand or set up a table and chair INSIDE polling places while elections are taking place to ask people to sign petitions.

  13. Yes, Wyoming equals California, much as Micronesia equals United States in the general assembly of the United Nations. The Senate represents the States. It’s an essential element of the US design. If the “gerrymandered” US States go, the “gerrymandered” nations of the world will be next to go.

  15. https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/24/politics/jenna-ellis-fulton-county/index.html

    Former Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis pleads guilty in Georgia case
    
    By Marshall Cohen, CNN

    Updated 10:53 AM EDT, Tue October 24, 2023

    Washington CNN  — 
    Former Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis pleaded guilty Tuesday in the Georgia election subversion case and will cooperate with Fulton County prosecutors – the third guilty plea in the past week.
    At an unscheduled hearing in Atlanta, Ellis pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting false statements, a felony stemming from the election lies that Ellis and other Donald Trump lawyers peddled to Georgia lawmakers in December 2020.
    She was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution.
    —–
    ANOTHER GA TRUMP HACK DOWN.

    DOOOOM FOR TYRANT TRUMP ???

    WHERE IS GEN SHERMAN MARCHING THRU GA IN 1864-1865 ???

  17. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/10/24/thomas-robertson-jan-6-appeal-trump-implications/70648840007/

    A Jan. 6 conviction was upheld on appeal. Why this particular ruling could affect Trump’s case.
    The statute serves as a foundation for two of the four charges against Trump in his conspiracy case on charges he tried to overturn the 2020 election.
    
    Bart Jansen
    USA TODAY

    D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds conviction of former police officer charged with ‘corruptly’ obstructing Congress.
    Donald Trump has challenged his federal indictment on conspiracy charges of election interference.
    WASHINGTON – When a divided federal appeals court upheld the conviction and 87-month sentence of a Capitol rioter, the judges did more than crush the hopes of a single insurrectionist — they also spelled trouble for embattled former president Donald Trump’s fight over the same issue.
    Trump’s peril in his federal election conspiracy case hangs on the definition of a single word: “Corruptly.”
    Thomas Robertson, an Army veteran who was a Virginia police sergeant at the time of the riot, appealed his conviction for obstructing Congress by arguing he hadn’t acted “corruptly.” His lawyers argued that meant “for the unlawful advantage of himself or an associate.”
    —

    ***corruptly***

    on to SCOTUS

    VOID FOR VAGUENESS ???

  18. What does your fake news and ridiculously calling liberator Trump a tyrant have to do with anything? Trump is the people’s champion and hope, like Milei in Argentina, SVP in Switzerland, AfD in Germany, etc. General Sherman was a war criminal, and the commie kangaroo court in Atlanta will be overturned. Face it, Trump will be back in office, not in jail.

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