ADA COUNTY, Idaho — Election signs, like the falling leaves, illustrate where we are in the year. Yep, election day is almost here. Unlike the leaves though, election signs can’t just be anywhere.
For example, right outside the Ada County Elections Office you will notice a collection of “vote for me” signs. There is an exact spot where they stop though.
“We have trained our chief judges to keep an eye on this. The statue says 100 feet from the polling location for signs and any kind of electioneering in terms of people campaigning or anything like that with buttons, shirts, t shirts, anything like that, said Ada County Clerk Trent Tripple.
Tripple said this is something polling locations have to deal with, it’s not a what if.
“What our challenge sometimes is, is when a person comes in with a badge or something on wants to vote. We've trained our chief judges to ask them nicely to cover up or take it off once, but we're not going to deny someone the opportunity to vote. And so we're probably going to try to push that person through the voting as fast as possible and get them out of the precinct. But it is something that we keep an eye on,” Tripple said.
Ada County elections director Saul Seyler said there are close eyes on the polls.
“So we have measure that we have that routinely where someone you know, maybe here we have candidates that come down to the office that could be a sensitive situation because we have early voting going on,” Seyler said.
It’s not just signs, buttons and stickers. Sometimes the problem is a moving target.
“No we've dealt with in the past. We get calls all the time. Cars that are plastered with campaign literature pulled into the parking lot and people jump out to vote. And, you know, for the moment that it's in, there becomes a big deal for a lot of people. And so we try to respond to it. But again, we're trying to conduct the election with as little interference as possible. We let people know, we give them the opportunity to change. But if they're voting, we're and let them vote. And then get them out as fast as possible,” Tripple said.
So, about those signs outside the election office in Ada County…
“It is just 100 feet. Exactly,” Tripple reports.
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