EARLY VOTING THRONGS STRAIN PUBLIC SANITATION

Electioneering Laws Flaunted by “Porta-Potties”?

Ft. Lauderdale, FL – October 30, 2008. The enormous turnout for early voting has caused a huge strain on public toilet facilities. Lines in front of polling places in the thirty-one states that allow early voting have caused election officials to provide portable sanitation facilities to serve the voting public who wait in line as long as several hours.

An unintended consequence of the rush to place public conveniences in areas of long voting lines has emerged as candidates rush to place campaign slogans on the portable toilets. Thus, traditional names such as “port-o-let”, “sani-privy”, and the colloquial “Johnny-on-the-spot” have been replaced by slogans intended to give one last campaign statement to captive audience voters.

Here is a sampling of campaign placed portable toilet slogans (Campaign names omitted where possible):

“Put [Name Omitted] in the Out House…Not the White House”
“[Name Omitted] Stinks. Check it out here”

Propriety prevents us from quoting other slogans in this space.

Most states prohibit electioneering within a reasonable distance – usually 100 to 200 feet – of polling places and precedent has come to mean that placing campaign signs is a form of electioneering. There are reports of both parties filing briefs with the Supreme Court requesting injunctions aimed at allowing placing campaign slogans on the portable toilets.

There have been scattered, but unconfirmed, reports that candidates believe they can sway voters via the internal appointments of the toilets. Charges are being leveled by both major parties accusing the other of toilet politics in trying to win an advantage. In that regard an investigation has not found any evidence that Gov. Palin’s toilet facilities were acquired for $150,000 from Neiman Marcus nor could any gold commodes be found. A spokesman did say that if there were such lavish facilities they would be donated to charity after the election.

The state of Nevada appears to have solved the sanitation problem a different way. Nevada reported that it has eliminated all early voting lines completely by converting slot machines into electronic voting machines. Early reports indicate that voters begin the voting process by inserting a coin and that the coin is returned if the slot machine is properly calibrated.

Nonetheless, the trend in increased early voting and concomitant lines is seen as a financial boon to “Joe the Plumber.”