The lines every gathering keeps

1. A gathering belongs to its host

   I list guides and I give XP. I don't run, pay for or decide anything for a gathering or a group, and no money moves through this site for one. The person behind this site is not a US citizen, and the election rules bar a foreign national from taking part in a group's decisions about elections. Read on 14 October 2026: 11 CFR 110.20(i), as shown by Cornell Legal Information Institute

2. Nothing is given for voting or for registering

   Federal law makes it a crime to pay, offer to pay, or accept payment for registering or for voting, and the Department of Justice's manual for prosecutors counts liquor and a chance at a prize as payment. So food and drink are for everyone who comes, and XP is given for hosting a gathering or for coming to one, never for voting or registering. XP is a score. It has no cash value and it is never traded for anything: no merchandise, no discount, no ticket, no draw. Read on 14 October 2026: 52 U.S.C. 10307(c), as shown by Cornell Legal Information Institute; US Department of Justice, Public Integrity Section, 'Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses', Seventh Edition, May 2007, page 47

3. Nobody is told who to choose

   Not by me, and not by a host. I show how people in office voted and I stop there. A table is for arguing, and everyone leaves with their own mind.

4. Strangers meet in public places

   A first table is for people you already know. When someone coming is someone you haven't met, meet where other people are. A cafe, a bar or a library is listed with its address, like any event, so people can find it. A home address is never on the board: it goes only to the guests the host says yes to, never into a report, and nobody says where a gathering is while it is still going on.

5. Adults only

   Gatherings are for people 18 and over.

6. Pictures only of people who said yes

   The host's yes is not the guest's yes. Each person in a picture or a video has to agree to being shown on this site and on the shows, and a report with a link asks the host to confirm exactly that. In most states a person can sue when their picture is used without permission to promote something. No children. No house numbers and no plates. Post after the gathering, never during it. I host no files: a report carries the link to your own public post, and you can take that post down whenever you like. Read on 14 October 2026: Digital Media Law Project (Berkman Klein Center, Harvard), 'Using the Name or Likeness of Another'

7. No camera on a ballot or in a polling place

   Whether you may photograph your own marked ballot depends on the state, so the one rule that is safe everywhere is: never. Nothing from inside a polling place either. Read on 14 October 2026: Ballotpedia, 'Ballot selfies'

8. At a registration party, everyone does their own

   Each person signs up on their own phone, on the state's own site. A host never fills in, collects or carries anyone's form: in Texas taking in someone else's form takes a county appointment, and Florida asks a group that seeks applications to sign up with the state first. I don't offer this mission to a reader in Florida. The food is for everyone who comes, signed up already or not. Read on 14 October 2026: Texas Secretary of State, 'Volunteer Deputy Registrars'; Florida Statutes 97.0575, Online Sunshine (Florida Legislature)

9. Near a polling place, hand out nothing and wear nothing

   States keep campaigning away from the door of a polling place, and the distance differs: 30 feet in Alabama and 600 in Louisiana, in a 2020 survey of state laws. Georgia's 2021 law bans giving voters anything, food and drink included, close to a polling place or to people in line. So nothing is handed to anyone in a line, nobody arrives in political clothing or with signs, and the party is at a different address, open to everyone whether they voted or not. Read on 14 October 2026: Georgia Senate Bill 202 (2021), as passed, section amending O.C.G.A. 21-2-414(a), Georgia General Assembly; National Association of Secretaries of State, 'State Laws Prohibiting Electioneering Activities Within a Certain Distance of the Polling Place' (updated October 2020), Louisiana row

10. If something feels wrong, leave

    Then tell me in the Missions discussion. I read every post there.

I'm not a lawyer and this page is not legal advice. It says what the pages I link say, on the day I read them.

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