On April 19, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Citizens for Police Accountability v Browning, 09-861, the case over petitioning at the polls. The case had been filed by a group that was attempting to qualify a local initiative. The U.S. District Court had issued an order, letting the group put its petitioners within 25 feet of the polls, so that the petitioners could ask voters leaving the polling place to sign the petition. The basis for the order had been that because Florida lets exit pollsters stand 25 feet away, the law requiring petitioners to stand 100 feet away is a content-based restriction on speech. But the 11th circuit had reversed that order. Technically, the case only concerned whether an injunction should have been granted, not whether the law is unconstitutional.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
I have done exit polling volunteer and paid work before. It is not easy and people coming out of a polling station and often on their way to work or classes and not too keen on sticking around. So, I can understand having a distance between the polling doors and the exit pollers. But I fail to see how asking people to sign a petition is that much more pesky then asking them to take an exit poll.