Fed court upholds Florida 100-foot voting place ban on petitions
by Dara Kam | July 1st, 2009A federal appellate court upheld a Florida law that bars petition gatherers from bothering voters within 100 feet of a polling place.
The U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit, overturned a lower court’s ruling that made the law unable to enforce during August’s primary elections. Voters complained then of being accosted by signature gatherers as they exited their polling sites.
Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning, a former elections supervisor, filed the appeal.
The court ruled that “exit petitioning” is akin to traditional political canvassing, which is also barred within 100 feet of a polling place.
“We believe the sanctity of the voting process and the abuse it has historically faced must allow the Florida legislature to exercise some foresight, to take precautions, and to prohibit questionable conduct nearly polling places before that conduct proves its danger; a compromised election is too great a harm to require otherwise.”
Tags: elections, state agencies, voting
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Sentenced to die for crimes judged heinous and cruel, inmates await execution in a 9 feet by 6 feet cell.
July 1st, 2009 at 9:00 pm
100 feet is a fair distance for such purposes.
July 1st, 2009 at 11:33 pm
[...] Fed court upholds Florida 100-foot voting place ban on petitions [...]