In a decision that wasn’t anticipated to come down until Wednesday, a federal district court in New Jersey ruled in favor of the National Election Pool — made up of ABC News, the AP, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and NBC News — on Friday and granted a preliminary injunction which will re-allow exit polling within 100 feet of voting sites in the state.
A previous NJ court ruling had banned it as one of the “expressive activities” that are barred within the 100-foot distance, a decision the NEP was challenging with the motion.
In his opinion, U.S. District Court Judge Peter G. Sheridan agreed with the news organizations, writing, “There is no alternative means to gather this information, which is vital to reporting election news.”
The judge also wrote: “There is simply no evidence that exit-polling has ever led to disorderly conduct at polling places. Thus, the public interest weighs in favor of granting the injunction.”
In the conclusion, the court granted the injunction and wrote that the “Plaintiffs are reputable and established news organizations and under First Amendment law they have a protected interest in reporting the news to the public.”