Greenfield council bars outdoor special events at active polling places after debate over 'DJs at the Polls'

The Greenfield Common Council denied an application to host a DJ at the Greenfield Community Center on April 1, 2025, and then voted to adopt a resolution prohibiting outdoor special events at active polling places during elections.

Council members said the denial and the subsequent resolution reflect legal concerns about interference with voting and the difficulty of restricting speech at public polling places. Mayor (name not specified) cited a state polling-place statute and said the “music that they play, the DJing activities that they do could possibly be construed as interference or a distraction for the electors.”

The dispute began under agenda item 5, when the council considered an outdoor special-event permit request by DJ’s at the Polls, a nonprofit that proposed a DJ at the Greenfield Community Center during voting on April 1. Erin Anderson, Wisconsin state project manager for DJ’s at the Polls, told the council the group is nonpartisan, trains its DJs, and aims to “play radio-friendly music” at a reasonable level while positioning equipment “at least a hundred feet away from the entrance” so as not to “be a disturbance.” Anderson said the program operated at more than 200 polling locations in the prior November and that volunteers and poll workers gave it positive feedback.

Council members and city staff raised the opposite concern: once permission is granted for one kind of event, any other group could seek similar access — including groups whose music or speech might be interpreted as political or preferential. City staff referenced a Wisconsin statute on polling-place conduct and emphasized that the municipal clerk and election inspectors must “prevent interference with and distraction of electors at polling places,” a phrase the mayor quoted repeatedly during discussion.

The council first voted to deny the specific permit application; the motion to deny was approved in a roll call of those present: Alderson Jaswiecki…