No Campaign T-Shirts or Buttons inside Texas, New York, New Jersey and other polling places
Categories: Featured, Politics and Elections, Texas
Written By: Shawn Williams
I received an email tonight with some important information for voters. Apparently it is unlawful in the State of Texas to wear “campaign materials” i.e. buttons and t-shirts inside the polling place. The source of the e-mail said they contacted the Texas Election Board and confirmed that this was true.
I did a quick search on the net and came across a law paper titled You Can’t Wear That to Vote by Kimberly J. Tucker. Here’s how she began her work in the subject:
My research for this article began on Election Day 2004 when I was told
that I could not wear a campaign button into the polling room while voting in
Virginia…a Virginia election official told me I had to take off my “John
Kerry for President” button in order to vote. I responded “that is not a law.” When the official protested, I said, “show me the law,” and she brought over a book of rules.
According to Tucker there are ten states — Delaware, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Vermont– that prohibit a voter from wearing a “badge, “lapel,” “button,” or “pin” in a “campaign free” zone. You can throw T-Shirts in the mix as well.
So until I hear otherwise, I’m going with this. Let’s get the word out and let everyone know that no matter how much they support their candidate -in my case Senator Obama- they should refrain from wearing any campaign material inside the polling place.
September 24th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Yup. It’s part of the “no campaigning in the polling place” restrictions. No signs, no shirt slogans, no hats, no buttons, (IIRC) no saying “vote for so-and-so!” within the distance restriction. There should be a sign posted at the limits of the restrictions.
Vocal campaigning is restricted by 61.003
http://law.onecle.com/texas/election/61.003.00.html
signs and instructions at 61.008
http://law.onecle.com/texas/election/61.008.00.html
and campaigning by wearing things in 61.010
http://law.onecle.com/texas/election/61.010.00.html
I personally think it is a good law. If it is intimidating to some people to see a designated observer at the polling place (like the Republican observers in heavily Democratic districts) imagine how intimidating it would be to walk into the polling place and see 15-20 people wearing buttons and shirts for one candidate and eyeballing you for not having something.
September 24th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
I thought the e-mail was a hoax, but here is the law I found for the State of Texas that supports this e-mail:
ELECTION CODE. TITLE 6 CHAPTER 61
SUBCHAPTER A. GENERAL PROVISIONS
§ 61.010. WEARING NAME TAG OR BADGE IN POLLING PLACE.
(a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), a person may not wear a
badge, insignia, emblem, or other similar communicative device
relating to a candidate, measure, or political party appearing on
the ballot, or to the conduct of the election, in the polling place
or within 100 feet of any outside door through which a voter may
enter the building in which the polling place is located.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Shawn,
While I am willing to refrain from bringing campaign wear to vote, I would like more information on why someone took time to draft this law/rule of voting and why we are just now hearing about it? I should not be surprised considering the political year we have had. I saw many people with T-shirts, caps, signs etc at two polling places in my area of town during primary voting and nothing was said.
Maybe it is because my blood is boiling after the events of today, but I am SICK AND TIRED of all the tactics to distract Americans from the real issues at hand in this election. McCain, why do you want to hasten to reschedule the Friday debate and pretend you are going to Washington to save the entire US economy from fire and brimstone when it was you and all your Republican buddies that drove us to this point over the last 8 years?
Give me a freaking break!!! The reason he is suspending his campaign is because he is trying to justify keeping Sara Pallin from being on the national stage and answering questions, because he is finally falling behind in the polls and because as he said himself just a few short months ago, he knows nothing about the economy and he is trying to avoid being forced to answer specific questions.
When will Obama, Americans, the media and everyone else say we are not falling for these stupid distractions anymore?
September 25th, 2008 at 8:30 am
@ Ben - I think the polling restrictions have been in place for a while and are totally independent of this election cycle. It covers all elections, local, state, and national. You are free to wear whatever you want, pass out any info you want, just not within so many feet of the entrance to the polling place.
I have been affected by this law in local elections where I was campaigning for a friend. I can say that, at least at a local level, it is not a big deal, and that it actually does protect the voter from over-zealous campaigners.
September 25th, 2008 at 9:22 am
These laws were passed in 1987 and last amended in 1997. (See the endnotes on the links I posted.) There is nothing new about them.
Not everything is about Obama. Not everything about Obama is a distraction.
September 25th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
How many of us wear shirts saying who we vote for anyway??? This is a ploy that many people have taken to heart and have forwarded as spam via email and phone text which i feel is to piss people off and prevent them from voting. Why are we saying what you CAN’T do at the poll? Why are we not sending emails and texts saying “go vote no matter who you vote for!!!” It pisses me off that people forward spam and texts and take it at face value instead of doing the research and finding out if its even true. True or not…VOTE!
September 26th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
I just posted about this on Thursday. I had gotten tons of emails so I went to snopes website and read up on it and then I contacted my league of women voters here in Texas and then I contacted the Secretary of state in Austin Texas.
It is a law, no electioneering within 100 feet of the polling place.
It is punishable by a fine of $500 and possible imprisonment.
The enforcement of this law is hit or miss but considering the heightened atmosphere of this election I would say, Know AND obey the laws of your state.
September 28th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Wow, I tell you what is America becoming. I thought we had freedom of speech. We are becoming as bad as Russia. Pretty soon we’re going to be a communist country. I feel like we’re already under dictatorship.
September 29th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I grew up in Texas, now and living in Florida where it seems it is not a law. I learned of the law prohibiting electioneering within 100 feet of the polling place in my civics class in high school in 1952 before the election of Eisenhower. So this is not new, just no longer taught in the schools.
October 2nd, 2008 at 3:16 pm
This is a travesty of legal ambiguity!
The law is sound in premise but fails to adequately define “campaigning”. Wearing a button to declare your political alligance is not campaigning its FREEDOM OF SPEECH. They should revise this law. Campaigning for someone is: HANDING OUT FLYERS/MATERIALS, TRYING TO PRESS YOUR VIEWS ON OTHERS IN THE POLLS IN ANYWAY. stuff like that. If your wearing a Obama or McCain shirt as you wait silently in line at the polls………….HOW THE — IS THAT CAMPAIGNING?
Thats like assuming someone will vote for the guy on your shirt JUST BECAUSE YOUR WEARING HIS SHIRT! How ——- stupid do they think americans are?
October 8th, 2008 at 6:30 am
Yes, there have been laws prohibiting electioneering since long before most of us even voted. Originally, when the laws were written, people didn’t wear t-shirts with their candidates name or face on it because it was not part of the culture. I grew up in the midwest and learned to leave the buttons and stickers at home. Now I’m grown up and work at early voting and election day as a volunteer for the county (in Texas) and it takes a lot of time and cause disruption and great discomfort to have to escort people to the restroom to turn their shirts inside out. It’s the law, it’s always been the law and it’s a good law. Please, don’t lash out at the pollworkers who are working their butts off to allow you to vote. We work very hard (for not much money–an no overtime) to open the polls by 7 in the morning and close them at 7 at night, and work until midnight securing equipment and auditing paperwork to be sure YOUR vote is counted. Do we do this for the money? No. We do this because we want to be sure that every American gets to vote. I’d love to be at another job, working an 8 or 10 or 12 hour day, for more money, getting bathroom breaks, lunch breaks, or at home watching the returns on TV, but instead I choose to help you vote. Please don’t make my job even harder and lash out at me because you chose to ignore the law. It’s a law. Behave, leave your shirt at home or cover it up, and have a little respect for the people who are trying to help you exercise your right to vote.
October 18th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Poll watchers should take some duct tape. If someone is potentially turned away, rip off a strip or two and cover up the offending name/logo.
Simple enough.
October 21st, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Wow at Ben up there …. why use a story about voting law to go off on McCain …. hahahaha.
These laws have been in effect for decades in several states, and several states don’t have laws similar. However, most states do have laws prohibiting campaigning within certain distance of the polling place doors.
Chill out up there Ben, the election will be over soon and you can channel your anger somewhere else. Just hope you aren’t married Ben … LOL.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:08 pm
I got turned away from an early voting polling place today for wearing a “vote democrat — it’s easier than working”.
These laws are just BEGGING for a contitutional challenge on grounds of first amendmnet &/or allegations of voter suppression.
But I guess the ACLU only takes on LIBERAL causes. Silly me!
October 25th, 2008 at 10:40 am
I don’t mean to sound overly democrat with this response, but when my friends and I went to vote, they didn’t notice our democratic shirts until we were 30 minutes into the line, and told us to go change. If it wasn’t for the nice lady behind us in line keeping our spot, we would have lost our spot in line. It was already near closing time and we would have been unable to vote until the next day.
They told us we could not even wear it within the designated polling zone, which meant not anywhere around the building. Yet there were many republicans toting signs and t shirts in AND around the building, and were never called out for it.
I know I live in Texas and we have almost always been Republican, but I agree with above comments that this is violating free speech. They told us we could sway voters with our t shirts and pins and whatever else, yet they didn’t think the republicans would sway anyone?
Obviously whoever thought up this law was thinking that officials in these areas would be smart enough not to be swayed by personal bias into only going against democrats or only going against republicans. Sadly it did not end up this way.
I think there will be corruption using this law in any political polling area, and therefore there should not be a law at all.
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:39 am
I observed an election in Panama where guards with Noriega buttons and M-16’s “protected” the polling sites. It’s bad enough that we’ve turned what should be the most solemn day in our nation into a carnival, so as you set here getting livid over the perceived wrongs to your candidate of choice. I would put forth that your time would be better spent reading the Constitution, start with Article 1 and 2, the powers and duties of the Legislative and Executive branches.