ABSTRACT
In Burson v. Freeman, 504 US 191 (1992), the US Supreme Court upheld a provision of Tennessee's Electoral Code prohibiting the solicitation of votes and the distribution or display of campaign materials within a 100-foot radius from the door of the polling place on election day. American elections, originally conducted in public, were altered dramatically by the widespread adoption of the Australian ballot, a system designed to offer voters the increased secrecy of a standard, official ballot and the privacy of individual polling booths. Inspired by rumors that the state was going to begin entirely prohibiting campaign workers from the grounds of the polling place, Freeman and her attorney challenged the statute as facially unconstitutional, an example of pure content discrimination, singling out political speech, purportedly the most protected form of speech, for restriction in this environment.
