Illegal placement of campaign signs at polling location in Fort Wayne?

[salvorhardin]

This is the entrance to my polling location here in Fort Wayne. I called the Elections Board and they said polling locations are private property so they have the right to display campaign signage but it must be 50 feet or more from the entrance to the polling location. While I didn't have my tape measure with me, I'm pretty sure these signs weren't more than fifteen or twenty feet from the entrance. I did send the Elections Board in Allen County an email with the photo attached. I'm doubtful anything will be done about it, but there are elections laws for a reason.

[AngryOldDem]

1. FWIW, I've never seen signs that close to the door. n/t

[salvorhardin]

2. They're all signs for Republicans too

There were a couple of Democratic signs posted, but they were much farther away (maybe 100-200 ft) at the entrance to the parking lot, and displayed so as to be only well read as you're driving out of the lot.

[Bozvotros]

3. Ditto on South Bend and Getz in Fort Wayne.

Mostly repug signs right at the entrance. No more than 10-15 feet from the door to go in. Rules are for Democrats only.

[salvorhardin]

4. It's definitely illegal

I just looked it up and the governing law appears to be Indiana Code 3-5-2-10:

IC 3-5-2-10
"Chute"
Sec. 10. "Chute" means the area or pathway that extends fifty (50) feet in length, measured from the entrance to the polls. If the property line of the polling place is less than fifty (50) feet from the door or entrance to the polling place, the chute is measured from the exterior door or entrance to the polling place to one-half (1/2) the distance to the property line of the polling place nearest to the entrance to the polls. Whenever there are two (2) or more doors or entrances to the polls, the inspector of the precinct shall designate one (1) door or entrance as the door for voters to enter for the purpose of voting.
Source: http://www.in.gov/legislative/ic/code/title3/ar5/ch2.html

You should report what you saw to the Allen County Elections Board too.

[LiberalFighter]

5. What is the location?

[salvorhardin]

7. Aldersgate United Methodist Church

2417 Getz, between Jefferson and Illinois. As expected, I have yet to receive a reply from the Elections Board.

[LiberalFighter]

9. Call Democratic Party and leave a message.

478-8239

Or call Andy Boxberger at Carson Boxberger law firm. He is the Democratic member on the Election Board.

[salvorhardin]

10. I'll keep that in mind for next time. Also, see my comment at #8. n/t

[LiberalFighter]

6. For the record

Steve Shine had a Marlin Stutzman yard sign in the right of way by his office. 2 times I was going to take a picture of it and each time the sign itself was gone but the frame was still there. The wind must of blown it off.

If anyone wants to get evidence and 21 keeps their videos they can see it when they do their weather and use the web cam from Shine & Hardin law office.

[salvorhardin]

8. Updated: Reply from Elections Board!

Here is the text of the email I just received from Dir. of Elections, Beth Dlug:

Thank you for this information. Actually, our polling location inspector should handle removing signs that are closer than 50 feet from the entrance of the polling place With your permission, we will use your picture in our training next year to remind them!!

Yay for small victories! You can be sure I emailed her right back to give her my permission to use the photo.

[LiberalFighter]

11. I've met Beth once in preparing for transfer of info of our pollworker information.

She seems to be okay. I think I have a good relationship with the lady that oversees pollworker appointments that works under Beth. So possibly they have less headaches when I transmit data to them. I should give Beth a call to see if everything went smooth enough. The person they hired to filter all the appointments that went through them was a first timer. I believe they usually hire someone new each time just for that work.

This was the third election I worked doing Democratic appointments. The 2008 Primary we took forms down to the Election Board for them for data entry. The 2008 General I took a thumb drive down to Election Board about once a week. This election I sent spreadsheet by email and they imported it into their database. This was Beth's first year and she was more aware of what could be done. The previous person retired and was probably more set in her ways and unsure about how to get data used the best way.

Election Day we had about 7 cancellations for various reasons that needed to be filled.