Cite as: 504 U. S. 191 (1992)
Opinion of Blackmun, J.
Munro v. Socialist Workers Party, 479 U. S. 189, 195 (1986).11
Elections vary from year to year, and place to place. It is therefore difficult to make specific findings about the effects of a voting regulation. Moreover, the remedy for a tainted election is an imperfect one. Rerunning an election would have a negative impact on voter turnout.12 Thus, requiring proof that a 100-foot boundary is perfectly tailored to deal with voter intimidation and election fraud
"would necessitate that a State's political system sustain some level of damage before the legislature could take corrective action. Legislatures, we think, should be permitted to respond to potential deficiencies in the electoral process with foresight rather than reactively, provided that the response is reasonable and does not significantly impinge on constitutionally protected rights." Id., at 195-196 (emphasis added).
11 This modified "burden of proof" does not apply to all cases in which there is a conflict between First Amendment rights and a State's election process—instead, it applies only when the First Amendment right threatens to interfere with the act of voting itself, i. e., cases involving voter confusion from overcrowded ballots, like Munro, or cases such as this one, in which the challenged activity physically interferes with electors attempting to cast their ballots. Thus, for example, States must come forward with more specific findings to support regulations directed at intangible "influence," such as the ban on election-day editorials struck down in Mills v. Alabama, 384 U. S. 214 (1966).
12 The dissent argues that our unwillingness to require more specific findings is in tension with Sheppard v. Maxwell, 384 U. S. 333 (1966), another case in which there was conflict between two constitutional rights. Trials do not, however, present the same evidentiary or remedial problems. Because the judge is concerned only with the trial before him, it is much easier to make specific findings. And while the remedy of rerunning a trial is an onerous one, it does not suffer from the imperfections of a rescheduled election. Nonetheless, even in the fair trial context, we reaffirmed that, given the importance of the countervailing right, " 'our system of law has always endeavored to prevent even the probability of unfairness.' " Id., at 352 (quoting In re Murchison, 349 U. S. 133, 136 (1955)) (emphasis added).
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