MINNEAPOLIS — Several news organizations sued the state of Minnesota yesterday to block a new law restricting access to polling places, saying it would interfere with exit polls.

The Associated Press, ABC, CNN, CBS, Fox News and NBC are challenging a state law that bans anyone but voters and election officials from standing within 100 feet of a polling place. The Legislature passed the law in April.

The news organizations say the law violates their First Amendment rights to gather information about the political process because requiring polling reporters to stay 100 feet away hurts the reliability and accuracy of their exit polls. They say they rely on exit polls to report on how and why people voted, to understand political and social trends, and to project the winners in certain races.

Susan Buckley, an attorney for the news organizations, said distance matters because voters get into their cars and drive away or blend into the crowd if exit pollsters can't get close enough.

"Bottom line, if the state of Minnesota is going to require journalists to stand 100 feet from the building where voting is taking place my clients are not going to be able to conduct their activities with any kind of accuracy and reliability," Buckley said.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court here, asks the court to declare the law unconstitutional as it affects exit polling, and to block the state from enforcing it against the news media’s exit-polling activities.

"Plaintiffs expect there to be enormous and unprecedented public interest in this year's general election and intend to cover it closely and in great depth," the news organizations said in supporting papers. "Their reporting will cover much more than simply the outcome of the election. It will also include comprehensive analyses of the various factors that influenced the electorate, such as race and gender, the economic crisis, and the war in Iraq, among others.

"This reporting will be valuable not only for our present understanding of this historic election; it will also inform the analysis of historians, social scientists, and others who will study the results for years to come."

The lawsuit names Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and Attorney General Lori Swanson. It says the plaintiffs contacted the secretary of state's office earlier this month to urge that journalists be allowed to conduct exit polling within the 100-foot zone, but were told they could not as long as the law remains in effect. A spokesman for the secretary of state did not return a phone call in time for this story.

Minnesota is the only state in this election that's seeking to impose such a restrictive distance requirement, Buckley said.

This lawsuit is the 12th in 10 states to challenge the constitutionality of restrictions affecting exit polling, Buckley said. Courts in all 10 states have ruled that such rules violate the First Amendment.