AB 393

Currently, with certain exceptions, no person who is not acting for official

purposes may post or distribute any election-related material (material that

describes or purports to describe the rights or responsibilities of individuals voting

or registering to vote) during polling hours on election day at a polling place, or on

public property within 100 feet of an entrance to a building containing a polling place.

Similar restrictions apply at the office of a municipal clerk or board of election

commissioners during absentee balloting or at an alternate site where absentee

balloting is being conducted. In addition, no person may use or threaten to use force

to induce any person to vote or refrain from voting in an election; no person may

impede the free exercise of the franchise at an election; and no person may induce

or compel any elector to vote or refrain from voting for or against any candidate or

question at an election.

This bill prohibits any person who is within 500 feet of a polling place on election

day, with intent to intimidate, suppress, or deter a prospective voter from exercising

his or her right to vote in an election, from posing as a law enforcement or

immigration officer; falsely warning or implying that one or more law enforcement

or immigration officers are present; falsely warning or implying that voting may

result in incarceration; making a false statement concerning voter eligibility,

concerning when, where, or how to vote in an election, or concerning the penalties

for voting improperly; or interfering with, impeding, or obstructing the act of voting.

The bill prohibits any person acting on behalf of this state or a county or municipal

government, with intent to intimidate, suppress, or deter a prospective voter from

voting in an election, from placing a traffic or pedestrian barrier or initiating a

construction project on a public roadway or sidewalk within 500 feet of a polling place

during the 72-hour period ending with election day, or from establishing a

checkpoint at which individuals are stopped without specific cause within 500 feet

of a polling place during the 48-hour period ending with election day. With certain

exceptions, the bill prohibits any person, in the presence of or within view of voters

who are engaged in voting at a polling place on election day, from engaging in publicly

identifiable action as a law enforcement officer or private security guard or detective

or purport to be doing so, or from parking or leaving in a parked position a motor

vehicle that bears the markings of a law enforcement officer or private security guard

or detective. The bill prohibits any person, by means of distribution, dissemination,

transmission, broadcast, or posting, with intent to intimidate, suppress, or deter a

prospective voter from voting in an election, from falsely warning of or implying the

presence of law enforcement or immigration officers at a polling place; or from falsely

warning of or implying that voting in the election may result in arrest, conviction,

forfeitures, fines, or imprisonment; or that voting in the election may result in

deportation, academic discipline, loss of academic standing, loss of child custody or

placement, or loss of financial benefits. The bill similarly prohibits any person, by