This is loosely enforced, but there is a steadfast rule of no campaigning inside the voting location. This includes signs, speeches, passing out pamphlets. Buttons, shirts and hats are expressions of support and should be covered up inside. Outside the door, it is customary to hand out stickers and leaflets although that practice is dying down where I am.

When I was younger, I'd hand things out at the local polls. In 1991, a friend (and boss) was the Chief Public Defender running for judge against a DA, who was known as a tough drug prosecutor. The DA had an employee working the polls too and approached an old man comiong to the door, asking for his support.

He grumbled, "Is he gonna be a tough judge?"

She smiled politely and said, "He'll be fair."

He looked annoyed, handed her back the leaflet and said, "I want a tough judge, not a fair one."

I waited for him to make his way through the sea of volunteers and handed him my flyer and said, "I'd appreciate your vote for Scott E_____. He'll nail the bastards to the wall."

He laughed and said, "Now that's the judge I want."