especially Aaron, although anyone with anyone with a legal opinion can chime in....
Can the "authorities" legally prevent me from voting if I show up at a polling place without a mask?
I can't find any argument for or against it in Indiana's code.
I'm tempted to find out. Just 'cause I am an agitator.
3 comments:
Legally? I suspect not, assuming you fight it all the way to your state supreme court and that those worthies have any integrity. Practically? Absolutely they can stop you. You know the old joke about how many cops they will send-"One more than necessary."
I don't like the face panties either, but I'm being pragmatic about it. If I walk into a place and no one says anything, great. If they do, I'll stick one on to avoid the confrontation. I carry a gun all the time, and confrontations when carrying are a Bad Thing.
Pick your battles.
I'm not an Indiana attorney, so I can't give advice on Indiana law, and as such this is not advice on Indiana law nor a legal opinion that anyone can rely on.
A general non-legally binding answer (now we got that out of the way) in the best lawyerly fashion is: Most likely they can require it.
Under Crawford v. Marion County Election Board the Supreme Court upheld the requirement for a photo ID to vote and held it wasn't an improper burden on voting, so it is likely a masks requirement would be similarly upheld as not an improper burden. Especially so if they provide masks at the door for those who don't have or can't afford them. I'd think they'd be on solid ground to require it for their stated health reason (regardless of my skepticism of the effectiveness of cloth masks for anti-viral protection).
Of course, how you verify a photo id and comply with that requirement while the voter is masked is a fun question and as far as I know it hasn't been litigated yet so we don't know the answer.
In short they can probably legally require it and the burden of being required to wear a mask while voting is most likely not high enough to prevent you from voting and be a legally cognizable impediment to voting.
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