LAS VEGAS — A federal judge yesterday barred enforcement of a law that prohibited exit-poll workers from coming within 100 feet of polling places in Nevada, ruling that such surveys do not infringe on the rights of voters.

U.S. District Judge Philip Pro's decision in favor of the Associated Press and five television networks was the 10th to side with news organizations since challenges to such laws began in the early 1990s, an attorney said. Last week, a federal judge in Florida struck down similar 100-foot barrier rule, and an Ohio judge overruled a similar law in that state last month.

Lawyers for the state of Nevada could not prove that allowing exit-poll workers within that zone infringed on the rights of voters to cast ballots, Pro said.

The AP and a media consortium including ABC, CNN, CBS, Fox News and NBC challenged the law because the group has conducted joint exit polls for numerous elections, using the results to project winners in key races and to analyze political and social trends.

Susan Buckley, a New York attorney representing the news organizations, noted that the state had criticized her clients for making projections in prior years that officials claimed were inaccurate.

"You can't then not let us stand in a place where we can get the most accurate results," Buckley said.

Buckley argued the distance restriction infringed on free-speech rights and introduced errors into survey results because voters leave the polls, meld into a crowd of nonvoters and impair news organizations' ability to interview subjects according to a scientific pattern.

Secretary of State Dean Heller, who was named as the defendant in the Oct. 10 suit, said that the arguments calling for greater accuracy were "self-serving" but that he would abide by the decision.

"My concern as secretary of state is that voters aren't harassed at polling places. That was the purpose of the 100-foot threshold," he said. "If a judge grants an injunction, I will, of course, follow the order."