Candidates must toe the line outside polls

Candidates beware: On this day chivalry could get you in hot water.

Ever since Sir Walter Raleigh threw his cape onto the ground so Queen Elizabeth wouldn’t soil her shoes in a mud puddle, gentlemen have in all manner of manners sought to be deferential in their treatment of the fairer sex.

But if you’re a candidate for office tomorrow, don’t let Town Clerk Laura Bragg catch you opening any doors for other residents, be you male or female.

It could be construed as trying to influence a voter.

“Besides, if you as a candidate are out there (at the door) and the other candidate is going over there and opening the door all day for voters, you’re gonna get tired of them doing that,” she said today.

In some states like Florida, candidates have to be at least 100 feet away from the entrance of the voting place, but in Maine and New Hampshire they can be right outside.

But there are still several dos and don’ts associated with Election Day, Bragg noted.

Among those are:

*** Candidates can’t say what office they’re running for.

***  They can’t say “Vote for me.”

***  They can’t open the door.

***  They can’t behave in any way that can be construed as trying to influence the voter.

***  They can say their name, however, said Bragg.

Bragg, as Town Clerk, will be overseeing tomorrow’s election and will have a staff of about a dozen poll workers who will do everything from traffic control outside to making sure Lebanon Elementary School staff and students and voters, alike, get though the day with neither group encumbering the other.

The workers get their meals and are paid a small stipend. Some will be working the entire 14 hours, Bragg said.

Polls open at 6 a.m. and will stay open till 8 p.m.

Political signs, meanwhile, can be no closer than 250 feet unless they are on private property.

In the past candidates, especially selectman candidates, have stood outside the full 14 hours of voting, but with a deluge of rain expected throughout the day tomorrow, it’s anybody’s guess how intrepid these candidates will be.

Only time, and rain, will tell.