Election day
Well, it's that time of year again. Tomorrow will be so nice, without all the damn politicians and various groups harassing us with their stupid "vote for me/this issue" or "vote against so-and-so/this issue" phone calls and ads. Just have to make it through today...
I already went and voted this morning, which is fairly typical for my family (and make those pesky calls later in the day even more annoying). My mom voted early (she actually believed that line her former union fed her about us not getting pesky calls from them to vote against issue 2, which was a load of bull. We've had a number of calls from them about it over the past month even after she voted).
Dad went down to vote about 15 minutes before I did, and he ticked off the little group in the parking lot of our polling place (I have no idea why he drove down there, it's literally half a block from our house). Anyway, this group was in the parking lot, trying to pass out literature and generally haranguing people about something on the ballot, and the one guy apparently even followed my dad all the way to the door of the building. The other side of the wall at the end of the short hallway from that door is literally where we vote, so there's no way that this guy was following the "100 feet from the polls" bit that is (and has been) the law in Ohio for as long as I can remember. The distance down that hall is maybe, maybe 20 feet, and if you add in the little bit of distance to the actual door to the room, then it's probably at most 25 feet. I know that there's signs all the way out to the road on both the east and south entrances (we use the north entrance) stating that it's 100 feet from the polls, so there's no chance that they were anywhere close to that distance on the side we use.
My dad reported him to the poll workers inside, and one of them came out with my dad (who pointed them out), and the poll worker basically told them that they had to move their table and themselves over to the grass because they were too close to the polls. Apparently they didn't listen too well, though, because I know for a fact that they were standing the parking lot again when I went in to vote (though none of them pestered me, probably because of the angle I was taking to the door of the polls, there was no way they could get to me without violating the 100 feet rule).
It was really weird to have people at our polling place to begin with going for or against something/someone, because generally, we're ignored. When we had all those hot-button issues in the past on the ballot, be it the law banning gay marriage or the various abortion laws or whatever, we never had anyone at our location. And the ones who were there today apparently need to go back to school and learn what the law is, since they clearly don't understand "100 feet from the polls" and apparently can't read the helpful signs that are posted each and every election day stating exactly where that is...
I already went and voted this morning, which is fairly typical for my family (and make those pesky calls later in the day even more annoying). My mom voted early (she actually believed that line her former union fed her about us not getting pesky calls from them to vote against issue 2, which was a load of bull. We've had a number of calls from them about it over the past month even after she voted).
Dad went down to vote about 15 minutes before I did, and he ticked off the little group in the parking lot of our polling place (I have no idea why he drove down there, it's literally half a block from our house). Anyway, this group was in the parking lot, trying to pass out literature and generally haranguing people about something on the ballot, and the one guy apparently even followed my dad all the way to the door of the building. The other side of the wall at the end of the short hallway from that door is literally where we vote, so there's no way that this guy was following the "100 feet from the polls" bit that is (and has been) the law in Ohio for as long as I can remember. The distance down that hall is maybe, maybe 20 feet, and if you add in the little bit of distance to the actual door to the room, then it's probably at most 25 feet. I know that there's signs all the way out to the road on both the east and south entrances (we use the north entrance) stating that it's 100 feet from the polls, so there's no chance that they were anywhere close to that distance on the side we use.
My dad reported him to the poll workers inside, and one of them came out with my dad (who pointed them out), and the poll worker basically told them that they had to move their table and themselves over to the grass because they were too close to the polls. Apparently they didn't listen too well, though, because I know for a fact that they were standing the parking lot again when I went in to vote (though none of them pestered me, probably because of the angle I was taking to the door of the polls, there was no way they could get to me without violating the 100 feet rule).
It was really weird to have people at our polling place to begin with going for or against something/someone, because generally, we're ignored. When we had all those hot-button issues in the past on the ballot, be it the law banning gay marriage or the various abortion laws or whatever, we never had anyone at our location. And the ones who were there today apparently need to go back to school and learn what the law is, since they clearly don't understand "100 feet from the polls" and apparently can't read the helpful signs that are posted each and every election day stating exactly where that is...