Sec. 1. 21-A MRSA §682, sub-§3, as amended by PL 1995, c. 459, §62, is further amended to read:

3. Advertising prohibited. A person may not display any advertising material, operate any advertising medium, including a sound amplification device, or distribute campaign literature, posters, palm cards, buttons, badges or stickers containing a candidate's name or otherwise intending to influence the opinion of any voter within 250 750 feet of the entrance to either the voting place or the registrar's office. The term "sound amplification device" includes, but is not limited to, sound trucks, loudspeakers and blowhorns.

Party workers and others who remain in the voting place outside the guardrail enclosure may not use within the voting place cellular phones, beepers, voice or signal pagers or similar devices that make noise or allow direct audible voice communication within the voting place. The warden may exempt election officials and emergency workers such as Emergency Medical Technicians and police from this provision.

A poll watcher or a person who is at the polls solely for the purpose of voting may not wear a hat or clothing bearing__a candidate's name.

A. This subsection does not apply to advertising material on automobiles traveling to and from the voting place. It does not prohibit a person from passing out stickers at the voting place to be pasted on the ballot at a primary election. It does not prohibit a person who is at the polls solely for the purpose of voting from wearing a campaign button when the longest dimension of the button does not exceed 3 inches.

B. A person who knowingly engages in activities prohibited by this section commits a Class E crime.

C. Nonpolitical charitable activities and other nonpolitical advertising may be allowed at the discretion of the clerk if arrangements are made prior to election day. If arrangements are not made in advance of election day, the warden may, at the warden's discretion, either allow or prohibit nonpolitical charitable activities and other nonpolitical advertising.