Voters who went to the Delaware County Board of Elections Friday morning may have seen a tent in the parking lot offering free root beer floats alongside a prominent sign urging a yes vote on Issue 1.
The tent was taken down after a few hours. But there are questions whether it’s legal to offer treats outside a polling place while urging a political message. And opponents say the move smacks of desperation.
A handful of women had been providing free root beer floats for several hours Friday, and started taking down their tent mid-afternoon. But they still had a sign promoting the root beer floats that said “Come learn about Issue 1. Go vote!” Next to it was a red Ohio-shaped sign with a blue check mark in a box marked “yes”.
“We are out here telling people to vote ‘yes’ because the media only tells everybody about vote ‘no’,” said a woman who declined to give her name or the name of the person she said gave them permission to be in the parking lot with their sweet drinks and signs.
It is illegal to bribe voters. But food and drink has long been used to attract voters’ attention and get them to the polls.
And there have been questions about it. In 2012, it was former Ohio Republican Party Chair Bob Bennett who asked the Franklin County Board of Elections to take action against a group providing pizza to Ohio State students who voted. That complaint was ultimately tossed.
“The flavor of the day is obviously a double scoop of desperation,” said Dennis Willard with the vote “no” campaign One Person One Vote, who added that voters are fed up with this "attack on their rights."
It's unclear whether offering the sweet drinks in the parking lot of the voting center is against election laws. Groups have often offered water or snacks to voters in long lines. Jonathan Entin, professor emeritus of the Case Western School of Law, said there's nothing in the most recently passed election law that covers anything regarding to the providing of food and drink to people in line at polling places.
He noted anyone providing information or anything else to voters need to be outside a 100 feet perimeter of the polling place. But he said there is a separate provision in law that interferes with the conduct of an election that prohibits loitering in or about a polling place during an election.
"But that's a pretty general provision and it's not clear to me that provision would actually cover providing the root beer float,” Entin said.
Entin said if someone were promised something of significant value, like a job or a cash reward, it could be illegal but he said it is questionable whether a root beer float would rise to that level.
"You'd have to be a pretty hard-nosed prosecutor to go after somebody in that situation," Entin said.
A spokesman for Secretary of State Frank LaRose, Rob Nichols, also said he also doesn't think the root beer floats could rise to the level of illegal activity unless there was evidence of inducement.
Backers say Issue 1, which requires 60% approval instead of the current simple majority, is needed to make it harder for wealthy special interests to amend Ohio's constitution. And many said it is needed now so that higher threshold can be used to thwart a constitutional amendment on reproductive rights likely to go before voters in November. Opponents argue Issue 1 gives priority over the majority of voters to minority of Ohioans and to politicians. And the opponents only wealthy special interests will be able to afford the additional petition gathering requirements in Issue 1.
