Questions about Recent Elections

Intimidation. It's a two-edged sword. Campaign workers standing outside polling places often intimidate voters, but sometimes they can become the intimidated. It happened last month in a local state senate race, and we'll have more on that later. First a little background on our state's possibly inadequate law.

If you're not familiar with Alabama's law on election day campaigners you may not be alone. Google tells us that all states mandate campaigners stand a certain distance from the actual polling place. The average distance is 142 feet; in Alabama it's only 30. Secretary of State John Merrill would like to see this distance lengthened, and a few state legislators have attempted to change the law over the years. One law maker who opposed modifying the current distance requirement stated he didn't want the state to waste time on frivolous bills. Would you like us to retype that last sentence just in case you thought you must have misread it?

We're pretty sure that many individuals are like us when it comes to measuring distance by sight alone. We can see them standing in front of a polling location thinking: Hmmm, my cousin Jack is exactly six feet tall, so if I pictured five of him lying in a straight line, that's as close as a campaigner may come to the building. In other words, it's not an exact science for most of us.

In the November election, at least one local campaign worker was attacked. We have only the basic information on the incident and have not seen the police report. If you have any specifics on this or any other attack on campaigners, we'd like to hear from you. Contact us at Shoalanda.Speaks@gmail.com.

To be continued...