Electioneering at the polls: Idaho bill could increase limit, add crime for violations

Idaho House lawmakers will soon consider a bill to place more limits on electioneering and create harsher penalties for violations after it passed in the Senate on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 1244, sponsored by Sen. Linda Hartgen, R-Twin Falls, would extend prohibitions on electioneering from 100 feet to 250 feet from polling locations during elections, while also increasing penalties for violations of the law to make three-time violators guilty of a misdemeanor. Electioneering is the practice of promoting political agendas to sway voters.

In Kootenai County, one parking spot at a polling location was beyond the current 100-foot limit, and supporters of campaigns have fought to secure that parking spot on the morning of Election Day to promote their candidates, Secretary of State Phil McGrane told lawmakers. In one instance, he added, there was a collision when two cars competed for the spot.

“We really are seeing a rise in the aggression and tactics that are used at our polling locations around the state,”McGrane, who supported the bill, told a Senate committee.

Hartgen told the committee she aimed to stop voter harassment.

Members of the Idaho Freedom Caucus, a far-right faction of the Legislature, opposed Hartgen’s bill. Sen. Brian Lenney, R-Nampa, who’s part of the caucus, during the Senate debate called the bill a “blatant attack” on citizens’ “right to speak our minds where it counts the most.” Sen. Scott Herndon, R-Sagle, another member, said the bill would push information booths that could help uninformed voters farther away from polling sites.

Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Viola, said it was an intrusion on First Amendment rights to speech and assembly.

“I don’t personally think it’s a First Amendment right for people to come on a polling site and harass others,” Senate Pro Tem Chuck Winder, R-Boise, who supported the bill, said in response.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, several states bar electioneering from greater distances than Idaho does, like Louisiana, which bans the practice within 600 feet, or Maine, which bans it within 250 feet.

The Senate passed the bill in a 23-12 vote.