Journalists’ Roundtable: Ban on offensive speech at polls & more

It’s Friday, which means it is time for another edition of Journalists’ Roundtable. This week, “Arizona Horizon” host Ted Simons was joined by Dennis Welch of “CBS-5 and 3-TV”, Camryn Sanchez of “KJZZ”, and Ray Stern of “The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com.”

Top stories this week include

• Arizona Secretary of State’s attempt to ban offensive speech at polling place

Dennis Welch: “Judge rules…you may be trying to you know do something good and stop hateful speech you may not like, but it’s also a first amendment violation that you’re looking at that you have to be very careful with here.”

Camryn Sanchez: “He (Adrian Fontes) says…i’m trying to prevent…violent speech or threatening speech or incorrect speech, like if people are outside the polls saying ‘oh today’s not election day go down the block,’ and just like lying to people which…the court basically said it’s not illegal to be a jerk.”

Ray Stern: “Adrian Fontes, the Secretary of State, has said that some things can be changed…because the election procedures manual does hold the force of law, it has the power to change elections, and Republicans are probably kind of ticked off that a Democrat is putting it together.”