Michelle Obama violates election laws, ho-hum

Drudge is reporting that after early-voting in Chicago, the First Lady stuck around the polling place to ask voters to support her hubby's fellow Dems. Said one voter, "She was telling me how important it was to vote to keep her husband's agenda going."

Drudge notes that this activity would seem to run afoul of Illinois Statutes Section 17-29(a), which (he writes) provides: "No judge of election, pollwatcher, or other person shall, at any primary or election, do any electioneering or soliciting of votes or engage in any political discussion within any polling place [or] within 100 feet of any polling place."

These sorts of statutes are common. Florida's version prohibits any person from attempting to "solicit voters" inside a polling place or within 100 feet of the entrance to a polling place. The election clerk assigned to each polling place is supposed to mark off the 100-foot no-solicitation zone before the polls open. "Solicitation" is defined broadly to include "seeking or attempting to seek any vote, fact, opinion, or contribution; distributing or attempting to distribute any political or campaign material, leaflet, or handout; conducting a poll [except exit polls]; seeking or attempting to seek a signature on any petition; and selling or attempting to sell any item."

The idea is to protect voters from being physically bullied, verbally browbeaten, or otherwise leaned on as they head into the polls. You know, like if a world-famous figure, say the spouse of the most powerful man in the free world, hung around telling voters whom they should vote for.

In all seriousness, it doesn't bother me too much that Michelle Obama talked up a few voters. It also does not surprise me when Democrats disregard election laws. In 2008, I served as a poll-watcher for the McCain-Palin campaign in a very heavily Democratic precinct in South Florida. A few weeks before election day, the campaign hosted a training for lawyers like me who were to serve as poll-watchers. They explained that, as poll-watchers we weren't there to promote our candidate (that was forbidden by the law prohibiting "solicitation"). Nor were we to offer any kind of advice to voters (that was a job for the election clerks and their deputies) or even speak to them. Rather, by law, our only role at the polling place was to observe, make sure election laws were being followed, and report any problems to the election clerk. Apparently the Obama campaign didn't tell this to its own poll watchers.

On election day, my counterpart from the Obama campaign sat next to the entrance to the polling both (within 5 feet of the entrance, much less 100), with a large, professional looking sign with something like VOTING RIGHTS HOTLINE in block letters, inviting them to call 1-800 number if they encountered problems trying to vote. I called the 1-800 number -- it was the Obama campaign's national headquarters, which answered with an automated greeting from the candidate. He also wore a cap emblazoned with "Florida Election Lawyer." When I asked him about this, he admitted that he lived in New York, not Florida, he was not admitted to practice law in Florida, and he did not practice election law. I also saw him speak with several voters well within the 100-foot limit.

I mentioned all of these things to the election clerk, who seemed markedly unfamiliar with the regulations it was her job to enforce. But after much cajoling, she asked the Obama poll-watcher to move, and after she asked him several times, he did so, at least for a little while, before returning to his (illegal) post. One saving grace was that he was incredibly lazy, and spent most of the day just sitting slumped under his sign. He was a cheater but not a very good one.

After consulting with the McCain election-law headquarters, I figured it was not something worth going to the mattresses over. The precinct was something like 99.5% Democrat, and the campaign's legal team had more important things to worry about, and so did the Florida Bar. And the fact is, the guy wasn't influencing anyone's vote with his sign or his stupid hat. But for me it was a little lesson in at least some Democrats willingness to ignore the rules on election day.