§ 12-18-3 — Electioneering, offices, distracting communications devices, and signature gathering prohibited near polling place--Violation as misdemeanor.

Except for sample ballots and materials and supplies necessary for the conduct of the election, no person may, in any polling place or within or on any building in which a polling place is located or within one hundred feet from any entrance leading into a polling place, maintain a campaign office or public address system, or use any communication or photographic device in a manner which repeatedly distracts, interrupts, or intimidates any voter or election worker, or display campaign posters, signs, or other campaign materials or by any like means solicit any votes for or against any person or political party or position on a question submitted or which may be submitted. No person may engage in any practice which interferes with the voter's free access to the polls or disrupts the administration of the polling place, or conduct any petition signature gathering, on the day of an election, within one hundred feet of a polling place. For the purposes of this section, the term, polling place, means a designated place voters may go to vote on the day of the election or go to vote absentee. A violation of this section is a Class 2 misdemeanor.

Legislative History

SL 1897, ch 60, § 39; RPolC 1903, § 1923; RC 1919, § 7273; SL 1921, ch 222, § 1; SDC 1939, §§ 16.1209, 16.9920; SL 1974, ch 118, § 103; SL 1982, ch 86, § 84; SL 1985, ch 114; SL 2008, ch 34, § 14; SL 2009, ch 69, § 5; SL 2014, ch 71, § 1.