Sharp-eyed observers have noted that Hillary Clinton violated electioneering laws when she showed up at an early voting site in Raleigh, North Carolina this weekend.
Clinton’s entourage rolled up to the Chavis Community Center and the candidate took selfies with adoring fans while early voting was taking place.
The question of whether or not electioneering laws were violated hinges on Clinton’s distance to the entrance of the polling place.
Check out her appearance below …
.@HillaryClinton rolls up to the Chavis Center in Raleigh, NC to greet early voters and actress @UzoAduba #ABC11 #Decision2016 pic.twitter.com/X1xK7ZPJU9
— Tim Pulliam (@TimABC11) October 23, 2016
Via the American Mirror:
Hillary Clinton campaigned at an early voting location on Sunday in Raleigh, North Carolina, in a potential violation of electioneering laws.
Clinton was “mobbed” at the early voting location at Chavis Community Center, Reuters reporter Luciana Lopez tweeted today.
Campaign staffer Michael Gwin also posted a photo from her appearance, claiming “she decided to check it out for herself.”
But she wasn’t just there to “check it out.” She blatantly campaigned.
It wasn’t just the American Mirror reporting that Clinton was campaigning on site. The local media specifically described her visit as a campaign stop.
ABC 11 reports:
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was back in North Carolina Sunday, campaigning at St. Augustine’s University and at the Chavis Center in Raleigh.
North Carolina’s electioneering laws specifically state:
N.C.G.S. §163-166.4(a) states, “No person or group of persons shall hinder access, harass others, distribute campaign literature, place political advertising, solicit votes, or otherwise engage in election-related activity in the voting place or in a buffer zone…”
The buffer zone will be 50 feet from the entrance to the polling place except where deemed by the Wake County Board of Elections to be necessarily closer, but no less than 25 feet from the entrance to the polling place. There will be publication of information regarding the entrance location and distance of the buffer zone no later than 30 days before the election.
While there is some question as to how close Clinton came to the entrance of the building itself, here’s where the violation occurs …
The entrance to the building is NOT the entrance to the polling place. The Chavis Community Center offers ‘curbside voting’ for those voters too physically impaired to enter the building. The curbside voting takes place where the Clinton entourage pulled up – within 50 feet.
You can see the same entrance and signs that Clinton pulled up to in this report on curbside voting.
The Chavis Community Center also provides a map to show how early curbside voting is located outside the community center itself, on the street by the entrance.
A Google Maps view of where Clinton’s vehicle pulled up shows that they did indeed get out of their SUV at that entrance, where curbside voting takes place on the immediate left and right of the parking lot.
Feel free to view the Google Maps link yourself, you can see the same houses in the background, as well as the same cracks in the pavement along the entrance way.
Judging by her efforts to walk over and greet the crowd toward the sidewalk on the left side in the above image, it seems that Clinton may have known that coming too close to voters in the building was a violation.
But she didn’t take into account that voters were parked along the curb, and even entering that same area to get to the curb. They would have had no choice but to see the candidate campaigning in that area.
It seems clear that she violated election law here.
Comment: Did Hillary Clinton violate electioneering law during her campaign stop at a polling place in North Carolina? Share your thoughts below.
