[EL] Request --"best practices" for political access to tenants in apartment buildings?

[Rob Richie]

Greetings,

Like many urban communities, my home town of Takoma Park has a lot of
apartment buildings with tenants. Their voter turnout level tends to be
much lower then homeowners.

Although not certainly not the  main reason for this disparity, one issue
is that homeowners can be much more easily reached by candidates who can
knock on their door. Many apartment buildings deny candidate access and
don't even make it easy to talk to people outside their building.

Below is a listing of examples of  jurisdictions' rules regarding
political-campaign access to apartment buildings. I'd love to hear from
people off-list about any examples you might have along these lines.

Thanks,
Rob Richie

#############

Minnesota allows access:
211B.20 DENIAL OF ACCESS BY POLITICAL CANDIDATES TO MULTIPLE UNIT DWELLINGS.
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/**statutes/?id=211b.20<https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id=211b.20>


The State of Washington denies access: http://blog.thenewstribune.**
com/politics/2009/08/18/**candidates-cannot-demand-**
access-to-gated-communities/<http://blog.thenewstribune.com/politics/2009/08/18/candidates-cannot-demand-access-to-gated-communities/>


Canada --
http://www.elections.ca/pol/**can/access_e.pdf<http://www.elections.ca/pol/can/access_e.pdf>
"These include the right of candidates and their representatives to have
access, within apartment buildings and condominiums to canvass, between the
hours of 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m., at the doors of apartments, units or
houses, as the case may be. As well, candidates and their representatives
have a corresponding right to campaign in the common areas of multiple
residence buildings during those hours..."

Manitoba in particular --
http://web2.gov.mb.ca/laws/**statutes/ccsm/r119e.php<http://web2.gov.mb.ca/laws/statutes/ccsm/r119e.php>
Access for candidates and representatives
66(2)       A landlord shall not restrict reasonable access to rental units
or a residential complex between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. to any of the
following persons for the purposes set out below:
(a) a candidate for election to the House of Commons, the Legislative
Assembly, or any office in a municipal government, local government
district, school board or other similar body, or a candidate's authorized
representative, in order to canvass tenants or deliver election materials;
(b) a member of the House of Commons, a member of the Legislative Assembly
or the holder of an elected office with a municipal government, local
government district, school board or other similar body, in order to
contact tenants on matters related to his or her elected office.


Maryland law takes a step in the right direction:

Maryland law, § 1-303. Dissemination of voter registration materials --
Apartment buildings.
http://www.elections.state.md.**us/laws_and_regs/documents/**
Election%20Law%202011.pdf<http://www.elections.state.md.us/laws_and_regs/documents/Election%20Law%202011.pdf>

(b) Applicability. -- This section applies only:
(1) in Montgomery County; and
(2) to apartment buildings, condominiums, or other multifamily residential
structures where access to the entrance of individual residential units is
restricted by the owner or governing board of the entire structure.
(c) Requirements. -- (1) The owner or governing board of a multifamily
residential structure shall designate a public area within the structure
where, for the 60-day period immediately prior to each primary election and
general election, voter information material may be distributed or
deposited.
(2) The designated public area shall be readily accessible to the residents
of the structure.
(3) Voter information material deposited in the designated public area
shall remain available for residents of the structure for a period of at
least 10 days.



-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Respect for Every Vote and Every Voice"

Rob Richie
Executive Director

FairVote
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 610
Takoma Park, MD 20912
www.fairvote.org  <http://www.fairvote.org> rr at fairvote.org
(301) 270-4616

Please support FairVote through action and tax-deductible donations -- see
http://fairvote.org/donate. For federal employees, please consider  a gift
to us through the Combined Federal Campaign (FairVote's  CFC number is
10132.) Thank you!
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20130204/05da5589/attachment.html>