§1461.4. Election offenses involving threats or intimidation of voters; penalties

A. No person shall knowingly, willfully, or intentionally:

(1) Intimidate, deceive, or misinform, directly or indirectly, any voter or prospective voter in matters concerning voting or nonvoting or voter registration or nonregistration, or the signing or not signing of a petition, including but not limited to any matter concerning the voluntary affiliation or nonaffiliation of a voter with any political party.

(2) While in the voting booth assisting another person in voting, coerce, compel, or otherwise influence the assisted voter to cast his vote in a certain way.

(3) Intimidate a person by the use of violence, force, or threats with the intent to influence that person's decision to vote or to impede such person's ingress or egress from a polling place.

(4) Without lawful authority, obstruct, hinder, or delay any voter on his way to or while returning home from any polling place where an election is being held or on his way to or while returning home from a place where he can legally exercise a vote concerning candidate representation of his party.

B. Whoever violates any provision of this Section shall be fined not more than two thousand dollars or be imprisoned, with or without hard labor, for not more than two years, or both, for the first offense. On a second offense, or any subsequent offense, the penalty shall be a fine of not more than five thousand dollars or imprisonment at hard labor for not more than five years, or both.

Acts 2010, No. 797, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 2011.