Billboard truck an innovative way to violate election law

Yesterday at around 11:15 a.m. I was at the Friendly Center early voting site in Greensboro. One of those “no campaigning or distribution of literature beyond this point” signs sets just beyond the lane that runs along the storefront where voters were lined up about 175 strong. Just as I pulled into a parking space, a billboard truck advertising the street improvement bond cruised slowly past the line of voters inside 50-foot no-campaigning zone.

You’ve seen the advertisement in YES! Weekly and elsewhere. It says, “Because flying cars are not an option.”

I watched the truck make a loop and then return, although this time the driver steered into the second lane, which lies outside of the no-campaigning zone. Then he left the area.

The Citizens Committee for Greensboro, which is campaigning for all the municipal bonds on the ballot, rented the mobile billboard display from Transit Graphic Advertising.

I described what I witnessed to Guilford County Deputy Elections Director Charlie Collicutt, specifically mentioning that the truck was moving while within the no-campaigning zone.

“That would be a violation,” Collicutt told me. “It’s the equivalent of someone walking through there with a sign over his head.”

He said he would instruct the precinct judge at Friendly Center to be on the lookout for the truck, in case it returned.

Today I spoke to Monty Hagler, who identified himself as a spokesman for the street improvement committee.

“In no way did the street improvement committee want to or intend to violate election law,” he told me.

Hagler acknowledged that the truck went down the first lane within the no-campaigning zone, and said the driver was instructed to not stop or block traffic. I pointed out that driving through the zone was a violation in and of itself whether the truck was stopped or moving. He didn't sound convinced, but promised to check with the board of elections tomorrow, and to adhere to whatever guidelines they set out when the truck makes the rounds again on Tuesday.

“I’m going to clarify that tomorrow afternoon,” he said. “If that’s the case, we won’t be driving within fifty feet of a polling place, even if [the truck] doesn’t stop.”

In case there’s any doubt, here’s the statute:

§ 163_166.4. Limitation on activity in the voting place and in a buffer zone around it.
(a) Buffer Zone and Adjacent Area for Election-Related Activity. — 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 which shall be prescribed by the county board of elections around the voting place. In determining the dimensions of that buffer zone for each voting place, the county board of elections shall, where practical, set the limit at 50 feet from the door of entrance to the voting place, measured when that door is closed, but in no event shall it set the limit at more than 50 feet or at less than 25 feet. Except as provided in subsection (b), the county board of elections shall also provide an area adjacent to the buffer zone for each voting place in which persons or groups of persons may distribute campaign literature, place political advertising, solicit votes, or otherwise engage in election-related activity.

UPDATE, Nov. 3, 3:01 p.m.: The Guilford County Board of Elections posts 48-Hour Notices for the Citizens Committee for Greensboro today. The committee reported a $2,500 contribution from Branch Banking & Trust Co. and a $2,000 contribution from Duke Energy, both on Oct. 28; a $1,500 contribution from Greensboro real-estate development company Capsule Group LLC on Oct. 24; and a $1,000 contribution from Bessemer Improvement, a Greensboro commercial and industrial real-estate company, on Oct. 29.