Followers of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” will bear in mind a scene from the 2024 season that noticed Larry David handing a water bottle to a lady ready in line to vote at a Georgia polling location, solely to be instantly questioned and arrested by law enforcement officials.
The cops advised Larry that he’d damaged a Georgia state regulation and Larry responded in typical exasperated-Larry trend. However was he really breaking a regulation?
Are you able to be arrested for giving a granola bar or a bottle of Poland Spring to a buddy or a stranger in a voting line? We talked to election consultants and dug into state legal guidelines, and right here’s what we realized about food-and-drink-related election guidelines.
All states have legal guidelines towards ‘electioneering.’
When you’re questioning why handing out snacks or drinks in a voting line would ever be thought-about a difficulty, Caren Brief, director of authorized and analysis for the League of Ladies Voters, a nonpartisan group targeted on voter registration, factors to an idea referred to as “electioneering.”
Electioneering refers to a politician’s marketing campaign or a political occasion taking actions to persuade voters to assist their candidate or occasion. In relation to polling places, each state has legal guidelines in place that prohibit the power of political operatives to work together with or affect voters. “The idea is when voters go to vote, they need to have the sanctuary and they need to not have any undue influence on them politically so that they can go and vote and not have any one political party or candidate influencing their votes,” Brief defined.
States get to set their very own electioneering limits; based on Brief, the allowed distance between a political group partaking in electioneering and a polling location “is usually a 150-foot line.” Nonetheless, “It’s different in every state. Sometimes it’s 100 feet; sometimes it’s 300 feet,” she mentioned.
To verify your personal state’s electioneering legal guidelines, you’ll be able to seek advice from this helpful information from the Nationwide Convention of State Legislatures.
Some states have particular legal guidelines towards ‘line warming.’
So what does electioneering need to do with a state of affairs like Larry getting arrested for giving a water bottle to a voter in Georgia? Brief advised us that the connection between Georgia’s anti-food and anti-drink provision, Senate Invoice 202, and electioneering is fairly flimsy.
“What Georgia was arguing is that if someone from a political party (like someone wearing a ‘Vote for This Person’ T-shirt) hands you a bottle of water, that could be considered electioneering,” Brief mentioned. However that argument falls aside as a result of, as Brief defined, “we had nonpartisan groups handing people water [in 2020] because they were standing in line for eight hours. So that argument was that this is just neighbors helping neighbors, like what Larry David [did in the episode]. They’re not wearing any campaign paraphernalia.”
Which brings us to the notion of “line warming,” which the American Bar Affiliation defines as “an informal term for practices like providing items with minimal value, such as a water bottle or snacks, to people waiting in line to vote.” Line warming, not like electioneering, doesn’t essentially contain partisan teams or political campaigns. Anybody offering a snack or drink to somebody in a voting line could be topic to line warming restrictions in states with these provisions on the books.
The SB 202 provision in Georgia is an instance of laws that outlaws line warming of any form. “SB 202 gave criminal penalties to anyone who handed out food and water to voters who are in line,” Brief advised us. She went on to emphasise that this provision successfully served as a type of voter suppression in Georgia.
“In Georgia, we have so many hurdles for voting like other voter suppression laws, anti-voter laws that are on the books, [rules that] make it harder to register, to vote, to get an absentee ballot, and to have your vote counted,” she mentioned. “We have really long lines in a lot of areas of Georgia, especially in Black and brown communities. The problem is that there are long lines in the first place, and so people are standing out in these lines for literal hours.”
Brief sees these lengthy traces as the results of insurance policies designed to discourage voting and to make the method as troublesome as doable. “We have state legislatures passing bill after bill that is making voting harder and more burdensome legislative session after legislative session, and we keep hearing about ‘voter fraud.’ What we’re not seeing is voter fraud. What we are seeing is voter suppression and state legislatures using the myth of voter fraud to justify laws that are causing scores and scores of voters to be disenfranchised through long lines,” she defined.
The traces are longer than they need to be, voters get hungry and thirsty whereas ready for hours, and individuals who attempt to assist by passing alongside a bottle of water can face prison penalties.
The excellent news? Some states with anti-line warming legal guidelines have seen these guidelines struck down by the courts, together with Georgia. In August 2023, a federal court docket within the Northern District of Georgia blocked the parts of SB 202 that banned food and drinks distribution in voting traces. An analogous regulation that’s lengthy been on the books in New York was blocked by a federal court docket in June 2024.
Sadly, different states haven’t had the identical degree of luck in getting these restrictions eliminated. In 2023, a Florida appeals court docket allowed the passage of a sweeping (and extremely controversial) election reform regulation with a provision that bans line warming (together with handing out food and drinks). Arkansas handed a regulation in 2021 that banned food and drinks distribution inside 100 toes of a polling location. Though a lawsuit difficult the Arkansas regulation was profitable within the decrease courts, the Arkansas Supreme Court docket reversed this ruling in 2024, which signifies that the ban stays in place.
HBO/Courtesy Everett Assortment
What’s the punishment for electioneering?
“Electioneering laws differ by state,” Brief mentioned, “including the definition of electioneering and the consequences of violating such laws. Accordingly, whether criminal penalties attach to electioneering violations vary by state.”
When you’re in one of many states that considers line warming a part of electioneering, you might be topic to arrest and a penalty starting from a financial wonderful to a quick (underneath one-year, normally) interval of incarceration.
Private food and drinks in voting places is mostly allowed.
If you wish to seize a latte and a muffin earlier than you head to your voting location, there aren’t any legal guidelines on the books in the US that prohibit private food and drinks in out of doors voting traces. Some particular person buildings that perform as polling places — like public libraries, church buildings and group facilities — could have their very own guidelines about bringing food and drinks inside, so that you’ll need to try your private voting location’s tips.
Providing food and drinks to ballot employees will not be explicitly banned, nevertheless it’s not inspired.
Ballot employees are really the unsung heroes of each election cycle, so it’s comprehensible that an appreciative voter or voting-group employee may really feel inclined to present their native ballot employees a batch of cookies or a field of doughnuts. Whereas state legal guidelines don’t typically forestall ballot employees from accepting food and drinks, Brief warned us that “I think that election workers are not going to look kindly on someone giving them anything for the fear of some undue influence. I think a simple ‘thank you’ would be much appreciated because they’re doing the incredibly hard work of keeping our elections fair and secure.”
Right here’s the place you’ll be able to find out about voting guidelines and procedures in your state.
To get particular details about your state’s voting guidelines, you’ll be able to go to your Secretary of State or Board of Elections web site. Additionally, Brief identified that “the simplest way to know what you need to vote and to make your voting plan is to visit Vote411.org,” a useful resource supplied by the League of Ladies Voters. “This is a one-stop shop for making your voting plan, finding out who’s on your ballot and what they stand for, what you need in terms of your voter ID, where your polling place is, the hours that it’s open, and all the information you need for voting.”
