I thought this was interesting. Here in Michigan I know you cannot take a newspaper in with you to vote. I found that out when I took the paper to read one year when I anticipated long lines.

I was also stopped once when my then three year old was with me. Apparently they thought he would influence my vote?

In the primaries I was one of the voters who's name had mysteriously disappeared from the voting registry. Keep in mind I have lived at the same address and voted regularly in this township for 18 years. I was eventually allowed to vote on a disputed ballot. You can bet I was resolving that issue promptly. Of course I was never given a real explanation for being dropped.

Now it's a clothing in dispute. I bet there will be some uneven enforcement of this rule eh?

By MARTHA RAFFAELE

By Martha Raffaele

The Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa.

Sue Nace thought election volunteers were joking when they told her she would have to remove her T-shirt to vote in the presidential primary last spring.

But it was no laughing matter to the poll workers , who said Nace's Obama shirt was inappropriate electioneering. They made her cover the writing before casting a ballot.

Now, a fight over what voters can wear to the polls is headed to court in Pennsylvania - with the Republican Party favoring a dress code and Democrats opposed.

To the GOP, the lack of rules could open the door to all kinds of displays - even, one Republican suggested, something as outlandish as a musical hat.

To the Democrats, voters should be free to express themselves. They fear a dress code could scare away some new voters.

The showdown was triggered by a Pennsylvania Department of State memo advising counties last month that voters' attire doesn't matter as long as the "voter takes no additional action to attempt to influence other voters."

Because the memo is not legally binding, some counties have kept restrictions on clothing and political buttons.

But two Pittsburgh-area elections officials sued to have the memo rescinded. Their lawsuit warned that if the memo stands, "nothing would prevent a partisan group from synchronizing a battalion of like-minded individuals ... to descend on a polling place, presenting a domineering, united front, certain to dissuade the average citizen who may privately hold different beliefs."

State Democratic Party Chairman T.J. Rooney said GOP support for the dress code is a partisan effort to scare away new voters. To go to the polls "and engage in an expression of democracy and then be accosted by the fashion police is a form of voter intimidation," he said.

The state Republican Party says Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell's administration crafted a partisan memo that would open the door to abuses.

"The first thing would be a button or a shirt, and maybe the next thing would be a musical hat," said GOP chairman Robert Gleason, who supports the dress codes.

Nace, 44, an Obama supporter, hopes the state's recommendation will stand so she can vote Nov. 4 while wearing her political leanings on her sleeve. "Especially with this election, for some reason it feels very personal to me," she said. "Even when I see another car with a bumper sticker on it, it's like, 'Yeah, they get it.'

During the April 22 primary, Nace was allowed into the voting booth only after she rolled up her Obama T-shirt to hide the writing. After the state memo came out, York County rescinded its ban.

At least four states - Maine, Montana, Vermont and Kansas - explicitly prohibit wearing campaign buttons, stickers and badges inside polling places, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures and state officials .

Originally published by BY MARTHA RAFFAELE.

To the Democrats, voters should be free to express themselves. They fear a dress code could scare away some new voters.


houses are almost free in Detroit.

keep flailing.

you may just get everything there to be free.

Vote Nakey

a new(s) flash!

/shakes head

I think I will wear my "I'm not dead yet" Monty Python shirt to vote.

I think its great that people show up to vote at all....

I will wear my "kick the baby"t-shirt .Can you be politically incorrect at th polls?

you betcha, bless your heart.

vote democrat.

Its an effort to try to suppress the black vote.

well, unless I miss my guess, mirror, anytime 100 million white people vote, it is suppression of the 12 million black votes, by your logic.