NPR

Polling Place Battleground: Freedom Of Speech Versus Freedom From Intimidation

Polling places are a politics-free zone. Could that change with a Supreme Court case out of Minnesota? The court is hearing arguments in a key case on this Wednesday.
A man votes at a polling place in McLean, Va., in 2016. Currently, polling places are largely a politics-free zone, but the Supreme Court hears arguments that could changes that.

Every state has a law creating campaign-free buffer zones outside of polling places — laws the Supreme Court has long upheld.

On Wednesday, the justices tackle similar, and even stricter laws, that bar "political" apparel inside polling places.

Until the early 1900s, election days looked nothing like they do now. There were no quiet lines of people waiting to vote in curtained off booths. Instead, election days were raucous, confusing, even violent affairs.

Voters then, as now, often were split into battling ethnic and ideological tribes, except that back

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