At one point, Libertarians and others were welcome in front of
the Post Office. Things have changed. I looked this up last
summer, when we got a less-than-friendly reception at one in the
Mid-Hudson area. It's talking about petitioning, but the upshot
was: you're only allowed on USPS property now if you're an elected
official handing out info. (!)

Of course, many post offices have somewhere you can stand
to talk to postal patrons without being on the P.O.
property. The P.O. in New Paltz remains our best petitioning
location in that area because there is a huge parking lot that 
is town-owned, not USPS property.

Bonnie

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.
The walkways adjoining post offices have historically been among 
the best situated public spaces for gathering signatures on petitions, 
initiatives, polls, surveys and referenda. Post offices are uniquely 
suited to such activity due to their public nature and the consistent 
foot traffic that post offices attract from a wide cross-section of 
American society. Post offices also serve an important distilling purpose 
in that their patrons, perhaps more than those at any other location, 
are generally residents and registered voters of the local community. 
These characteristics are particularly critical to the exercise of 
this First Amendment right in rural areas where alternatives to USPS 
property in signature gathering are practically unavailable or 
prohibitively expensive.
...
Prior to June 25, 1998, USPS regulations did not prohibit the peaceable, 
non-disruptive soliciting of signatures on petitions, polls, surveys, 
initiatives and referenda. In fact, the Postal Bulletin for April 30, 
1992 explicitly stated that "issue-oriented petitioning or campaigning 
for a referendum or ballot initiative" was allowed on USPS property as 
long as such activity did not violate other postal regulations against 
posting literature, obstructing entrances, impeding public access, 
soliciting contributions, or creating disturbances. However after being 
contacted by numerous petition gathering firms, individual petitioners, 
and grassroots activists who advised me that USPS had begun to deny them 
access to postal property I began conducting inquiries into the matter. 
I discovered that USPS regulations had been amended effective June 25, 
1998 to prohibit soliciting of signatures for petitions on USPS property.
...
Between September 14, 1999 and today, the Institute has done everything 
in their power to resolve this situation short of litigation. We have 
sent letters, members of Congress have sent letters, our attorneys have 
sent letters, asking for information and in several cases simply requesting 
a meeting. We have called and called and even filed FOIA requests--all 
designed to simply find out why the Post Office made this change. As a side 
note, we filed our first FOIA request on September 30, 1999 and we still 
have not received complete responses to our requests. Our position could 
have been different if the USPS could have simply shown us examples of why 
this change was necessary. However, still as of today, they have provided 
no justification as to why this change was made or was necessary.

Contact: 

M. Dane Waters
Initiative & Referendum Institute
202.429.5539
John Ferguson
Swidler Berlin Sheriff Friedman
202.424.7505
Arthur Spitzer
ACLU / Washington, DC
202.457.0800 

1825 I Street, NW, Suite 400 * Washington, DC * 20006
Phone: 202.429.5539 * Fax: 202.986.3001 
http://www.iandrinstitute.org/postofficestatement.htm
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.