GOP Clerk Yanks College Paper Off Rack Near Polling Place Over Udall Front Page

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Larimar County Clerk Angela Myers (R) ordered that copies of the Tuesday edition of the Rocky Mountain Collegian, the student newspaper for Colorado State University, be removed from newsstands at the school’s student center

The paper featured a front-page story about Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO), who is locked in one of the closest Senate races in the country — and therefore Myers said that they violated electioneering laws, according to the Rocky Mountain Collegian’s own report on the controversy.

Myers cited a state law that said “no electioneering may take place within a 100-foot limit of any polling location.”

“When you have a paper that has a candidate on the very front like it does, we will need that to be displayed outside the 100-foot limit,” she said.

The headline for the online edition of the story was: “Sen. Udall visits Colorado State Monday.”

“Myers also said newspapers with prominent front-page coverage of Michelle Obama’s Thursday visit to CSU’s campus would also be moved outside the 100-foot radius,” the newspaper reported.

The newspaper’s executive editor, Kate Winkle, said that Myers’ actions were “a violation of the First Amendment.”

“The Collegian was covering an event, we are not campaigning for Mark Udall and we would have had the same coverage had Cory Gardner or any politician affected by this election come to campus,” Winkle said. “I hope that the Larimer County Clerk’s office continues to respect the freedom of the press

Image via the Rocky Mountain Collegian. (h/t Romenesko).

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