Visit any polling place during voting hours in Texas and you'll pass distance markers, legal postings, and the watchful gaze of poll watchers and election staff. If you happen to step on the wrong eggshell then get ready to hear all about it.
That is, if you're not a member of a local Democrat club in a town just west of Austin. Then, according to various complaints, you can get away with not only violating the distance limit but outright mocking the regulations from a loudspeaker in an open-door rally for candidates. You can even illegally campaign for candidates on ballots just feet away, or be one of the candidates yourself. Neither the election judge, or the county sheriff, or even the media will apparently step in to warn you.
“We’re obviously, like, 40 feet away from a polling place? And there's an investigative reporter from the Texas Tribune here. [laughter] ... So that's all I'm gonna to say about that," said Jonathan Bove, a Democrat-endorsed candidate for Lake Travis Independent School District Board of Trustees, Place 4, according to a recording of the meeting (see below). Bove is opposing John Severance, a Republican-backed candidate for Place 4 on the local school board.
