WILDWOOD — On Election Day this year, New Jersey voters will not be handed voters rights cards or asked who they selected in the ballot box — at least within 100 feet of the polls.
Frank Corrado, a local attorney who specializes in First Amendment issues, was disappointed with a Sept. 30 decision by the state Supreme Court that banned all “expressive activity.”
“This decision marks dark territory for free speech and voting rights in New Jersey,” Corrado said. “We’re disappointed that the State Supreme Court would ban fundamental democratic activities like voter education and exit polling.”
As an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Jersey, Corrado filed a lawsuit on Oct. 10, 2007 that challenged an Attorney General’s directive banning the group from handing out voters-rights cards 100 feet from the polls as well as requiring those who wished to conduct exit polling near the polls to register with election officials two weeks prior to elections.
According to the ACLU, the lawsuit claimed that the Attorney General exceeded her authority by banning activity that the legislature allows as state law only bans electioneering, loitering, obstruction, and solicitation within 100 feet of polling sites; that her directive conflicts with those state laws; and that the ban on handing out voter rights cards and engaging in other non-electioneering speech activities violates the free speech protections of the New Jersey Constitution.
An appeals court upheld the Attorney General’s two-week rule for exit polling as well as the 100-foot exclusionary zone for all other expressive activity.
The ACLU asked the Supreme Court to review the case likely hoping for a more relaxed ruling on speech activity at polling places. Instead, the court’s decision was more restrictive banning all activity in the voting zone.
In an opinion written by Justice Barry Albin, the court found that New Jersey election laws are constitutional and require that voters have a 100-foot free, unobstructed passage to polling places, without interference from any person — including exit polling. The court affirmed the Attorney General’s decision but modified it to include the exit-polling ban.
“The last 100 feet to a polling place belong to the voters on Election Day,” the opinion stated.
The decision makes New Jersey elections unique.
“Our state’s ruling may be the most restrictive ban on speech at a polling site that our country has ever seen,” Corrado said.
What’s next?
The ACLU can ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review this decision or ask the state legislature to amend the language in the voting laws to allow exit polling and other non-electionering activities within 100 feet of the polls.
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