Posted on 10/01/2009 8:17:53 AM PDT by Pessimist
Edited on 10/01/2009 8:29:07 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - The New Jersey Supreme Court has reinstated a ban on exit polls, surveys taken of people as they leave their voting places.
It also has kept in place a ban on distributing leaflets or other materials within 100 feet of polling places. It said Wednesday prohibiting such activities will ensure voters feel no obstructions to casting their ballots.
(Excerpt) Read more at wtop.com ...
I’m no lawyer but I can’t see how this law would stand a chance of being upheld by the Federal courts.
Did they also say that militant, muscle-bound, black panthers with nightsticks could not “guard” the entrances?
As distances often provide a buffer zone from intimidation, and those buffer zones have been upheld, I see this as a good argument.
If bars can be closed on election day we have a stage set for other acts to preserve the integrity of an election.
I should have been more specific.I was thinking more about the ban on exit polling than the buffer zones.Talking to a voter *after* he/she has voted can't possibly jeopardize "the process",IMO.
That’s why I’m torn on this issue.
Maybe the way things are nowadays are just making me paranoid.
Given that it is NJ, I’d say it’s a safe bet that this can’t be a good thing. Note: they also have those damn electronic voting machines with no paper record. Just a tally printed at the end of the day.
The machines we have in Utah keep a paper record of the voting. You can see the paper scroll through the machine as you vote. So at least here they do have a papr tail.
And I have no problem with those. It is the machines (like my precinct in NJ) with NO paper trail that I abhor. It’s absolutely unbelievable that anybody with a brain would have thought that these were a good idea.
The point is exit polls, whether truthful or not, tend to influence people in the states that haven't voted yet. One way to stop this influence is to either ban all results before all polls are closed and to ban things like exit polls which are merely reporting election results disguised as something else. Another way would be to have all polls close at the same time across the country which would be illegal since the west would be cheated out of voting time, unless you had the polls in the east to open at 10 AM and in the west at 7 AM and close at 8 PM and 5 PM respectively.
People, of course, would raise he** about that. I am for banning any mention of how the voting is going until all polls close. I am also for limiting the absentee ballot to military and people who can truly prove they will actually be absent from their precinct on election day.
While I tend to agree with everything you say, I have an issue with “there oughta be a law”.
The underlying notion in your argument is that “people are too stupid or lazy to vote under certain conditions, etc.”
Unfortunately, I can’t say they aren’t. But when we attempt to legislate this that or the other to avoid people’s stupidity, then what happens to our liberty - or for that matter - to the liberty of the stupid?
If they establish a greater buffer zone from the polling place, like 400 feet, it would discourage the polling without affecting their “rights.”
It isn’t the polling that bothers me, it’s how they use it and how it affects the elections.
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