It is always interesting to watch the get-out-the-vote campaigns on Election Day. Vans and busses will be backing up to nursing homes and retirement centers nationwide. It would be fun to ride on those busses and talk with the voters. You might also try hitching a ride with the "Get Out the Vote" drivers that will be rolling all day in practically every city. If you do that story, send me a link. I have never seen it done.
About midday today, there will be a secondary push. Here is how it works.
The (Colorado Springs) Gazette said:
...At some point in the day, the poll watcher will turn over the list to party officials, who will use it to contact would-be voters who haven't made it to the polls and encourage them to do so before polls close at 7 p.m.
"They'll be passing that list on so we can do phone-bank dialing," said Lee Gilbert, chairman of the El Paso County Republican Party. If phone calls don't work, Gilbert said, vans will show up at voters' houses to do what he called a "knock and drag."
Try to get inside the campaign phone call boiler rooms. It would be fun to listen to the volunteers making their last minute pleas.
To find your polling place, just go to MyPollingPlace.com, enter in a street address and a zip. It will find your polling place and list the rules for voting there. Click here to read the Voter's' Bill of Rights for your state.
Journalists Barred from the Polls
I am hearing from more journalists all over the country that this year, more than ever, they are being kept away from the polls. I have received calls from Texas, Florida, and Ohio. I read about a new law restricting press from the polls in Minnesota. Texas journalists are telling me they have never seen so much difficulty getting a camera into a polling place.
Kingsley Smith at KDFW in Dallas told me:
This year things changed. For the first time during early voting we were not allowed any access inside polling places. The Texas Sec. of State advised counties to keep cameras out of polling places. County election administrators are following this much more closely. We are expecting the same approach (today) but do plan to press the issue. In previous years, many counties took a relaxed approach. Dallas County, for example, left it up to the election judges. We knew where we could go to get video inside. That's changed.
Steve Minium, Vice President for News at Clear Channel Television in Cincinnati, told me:
Ohio's Secretary of State is enforcing an old statute on the books which prevents anyone but "witnesses, poll workers, voters, and police" from being inside the polling places. We're exploring this with our First Amendment attorneys. We believe we fall into the witness category.
Rich Murphy at WTSP-TV in Tampa dropped me a note:
The official training manual for poll workers says "No media inside the polls."
A Florida Supreme Court decision in George Firestone vs. News Press in 1989 said keeping the media back 50 feet was unconstitutionally overbroad. It seems like individual supervisors try to make their own rules. Three counties have suggested media-friendly precincts to us where photographing is OK if we don't interfere or shoot from the door.
What's behind this new scrutiny? Is it that given the number of poll watchers, lawyers, and election officials who will jam some precincts that election coordinators fear the polling place might just be too crowded?
An AP story said:
...Swarms of watchers as well as pollsters, journalists, and political operatives could overwhelm and discourage voters from casting the very ballots they're trying to protect. Some compare it to a jam-packed Wal-Mart parking lot dissuading would-be shoppers from even entering the store.
Remember that some polls are nothing more than a person's house. Al's Morning Meeting reader Michelle Sherwood in Springfield, Missouri, tells me there are three such precincts in her viewing area. One just got larger because the family that owns the house built a garage since the last election.
Other precincts are in drug stores, schools, grocery stores, and churches like the one where I vote. When they become polling places, the question arises about how much of a "public place" they also become. What if the owner of the store or home didn't want the press in, could they keep you out?
I would appreciate it if, as the day unfolds, you would drop a note to the feedback section of this column if your newsroom is barred from covering news at a precinct.
In Colorado and other places, poll watchers are being warned that they may not use cameras, recording devices, or cell phones in the voting area.
Precinct captains are using their power to bar journalists. I saw this story from West Palm Beach, Florida, about a photojournalist who, during early voting, was arrested for taking pictures of people standing in line to vote. Election officials said people were complaining about being photographed, and last week imposed restrictions on where journalists may do their work.
The Star Tribune reports on Minnesota's new restrictions:
...The law, described as one of the most restrictive in the nation by some experts, requires journalists to get letters of prior approval to be in a polling site, where they can remain for a maximum of 15 minutes.
The situation has become confusing enough that Cass County requested an opinion from the Minnesota attorney general's office late Tuesday on how to administer the law. Reporters and photographers will be required to have a letter from city election clerks or county auditors giving them permission to enter specific polling places. Some media outlets are finding the law troublesome in their planning for election-night coverage. The city of Minneapolis will allow media representatives blanket access in every precinct. Hennepin County initially agreed to a similar arrangement but later rescinded the offer after some local election judges said they wanted control over their polling places. Ramsey County has agreed to give access to any polling place that a news organization requests. Anoka County wants its city election officials to decide.
Pay attention to this next passage because it addresses why journalists should be allowed to observe elections.
...Editors and broadcast managers say the restrictions could prove especially problematic if disputes arise within polling places and cameras and reporters are prohibited. "These monitors have the potential to really disrupt a polling place, and the media goes in there and we bend over backwards to do anything but cause a disturbance. I'm concerned that these poll monitors might do just that, and there's not going to be anybody from the media to witness anything," said Dave Pyle, Minnesota bureau chief of the Associated Press.
I am not sure why media organizations are not raising hell about this. The irony of imposing press freedom restrictions on Election Day is unmistakable.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press says states generally may keep photographers out of polling places and may keep them a distance from the polling place. The main question is whether there is a disruption with the polling process. Here is advice from the Texas Press Association.
Is it reasonable to restrict (but not ban) cameras from polling places? Sure. Look at this story out of Hong Kong and you will understand why. There, voters said they had been instructed to use their camera phones to show that they actually had voted as they were instructed to vote. American journalists might be very surprised by how other countries cover elections, including "blackout" or "reflection" periods where no reporting is done about the campaigns while polls are open.
And here is one more wrinkle. The restrictions on the journalists do not end at the polls.
The Dallas Morning News says:
U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, a former newspaperman who recently decried government censorship of the news media, has told reporters they can't interview guests at his election night party unless they're accompanied by a campaign representative.
"In order to attend the event, media must agree that all attendees are off-the-record," the Frost campaign says in a memo to news media. "Should the media need an attendee for on-the-record comments, a member of the Frost Campaign's media relations team will organize an interview."
It is not just journalists who plan to send cameras to polling places today. Michael Moore says he will have 1,200 cameras at polling places in Ohio and Florida.
Why Election Day Is When It Is
About.com explained:
- November was selected because the harvest work was done.
- Tuesday was selected because many people had to travel the day before to reach the polling place. Since most people did not travel on Sunday for religious reasons, they did not want it to be on a Monday.
- They did not want Election Day to fall on November 1 because it is All Saints Day.
- They did not want Election Day to fall on the first of the month because many shop keepers did their books for the preceding month on the first.
Election Day Weather
I am not sure how much a little rain affects turnout in such a tight election, but the weather in some "swing states" will not be so swell.
Cleveland voters face an 80 percent chance of Election Day rain. There are even chances of flooding rains in the Mid-Mississippi and Ohio River valleys. (See forecast map).
There is a 10 percent chance of showers
in Milwaukee. Grand Rapids, Mich. has a 40 percent chance of rain. In Concord, N.H., the chance of rain is 70 percent.
Get out the Amish Vote Here is a story you may have missed.
In Pennsylvania, there has been a big move this year to register the Amish and Mennonites who pretty much have never voted before. The big fear is that cameras will show up to see them vote today.
Bears on the Ballots
There are lots of interesting issues on the ballot for this election but what is it with bears on this Election Day? Two states have questions involving bears before the voters.
In Maine, there's a citizen initiative that would outlaw bear hunting with bait, dogs, or traps.
AP said:
...Activists pushing for the ban have crafted an image of out-of-state trophy hunters luring bruins with bait buckets filled with stale jelly doughnuts and then shooting them like fish in a barrel.
Opponents, in turn, have painted a picture of a proliferating bear population poised to fan out across suburban neighborhoods, tearing down bird feeders, and disrupting backyard barbecues in search of food.
In Alaska, voters are being asked to vote on whether bear baiting should be legal.
The Anchorage Daily News says that a ballot initiative would make it illegal to leave food out that would attract bears so that people could shoot, photograph, or just gawk at them.
The ADN said:
Opponents say Ballot Measure 3 is an end run around traditional game management in Alaska.
Donors from inside and outside Alaska spent more than $380,000 campaigning for and against this question. Think about that: $380K on the bear question. Does that tell you how important some people think this is?
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts, and other materials from a variety of websites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed, and a link will be provided, whenever possible.
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