[Steve_Seattle]

"How is this restriction any different than those preventing electioneering within 100 yards of the polling places?"

I think there is a huge difference. Electioneering at a polling place can be viewed as intimidation in a very immediate sense; if you had to run through a gauntlet of political signs and pamphleteers to get to a polling place, many people simply wouldn't go - it would either frighten or annoy them. Also, when electioneering goes on at or near a polling place, it raises questions of collusion between poll-workers and partisan political activists.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Our first elections took place with candidates actually sitting at the polling places with NO secret ballot. A voter would cast his vote openly, shake hands with the man he voted for, maybe talk to the ones he didn't vote for and leave.

Such precautions as we have now were totally unknown to the Founders. They stop things which COULD be considered intimidation but they are also a violation of absolute freedom of speech. You can't have it both ways.