Page 7 - IAV Digital Magazine #506

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
New Hampshire Woman Votes Topless After Anti-Trump Shirt Disallowed
Alex LaCassePortsmo uth Herald
EXETER, N.H. – A woman voting in Tuesday’s New Hampshire pri- mary found an unorthodox way of protesting an election official who ruled her T- shirt was a form of electioneering: She took it off and voted top- less.
Exeter Town Moderator Paul Scafidi said the woman walked into the Talbot gymnasium Tuesday wearing a “McCain Hero, Trump Zero” T- shirt. As a ballot clerk was check- ing her name off the voter list, Scafidi said he informed the woman she could not wear a shirt with a political candidate fea- tured on it while she voted.
Scafidi said another woman nearby was wear-
ing a T-shirt sup- porting the American flag and the woman with the “Trump Zero” shirt ques- tioned why she was being singled out, which esca- lated into a brief argument.
State law states no person “shall distribute, wear, or post at a polling place any campaign materi- al,” in part, and if convicted, is sub- jecttoafineupto $1,000.
“She asked why her and not me?”
Scafidi said. “I said she was going to have to cover her shirt, and (a shirt) sup- porting the American flag was not election- eering. That’s my opinion, and that was my call as the moderator.”
Scafidi said the woman then asked him if he wanted her to take her shirt off, despite not wear- ing anything underneath.
“I said, I’d rather she not,” Scafidi said. “But she
took it off so fast, no one had time to react so the whole place just went, ‘Woah,’ and she walked away, and I let her vote. She could’ve just gone into the hall- way and turned it inside-out.”
New Hampshire’s public indecency law states an individual can be found guilty of indecent expo- sure and lewd- ness if the person “fornicates, exposes his or her genitals, or performs any other act of gross
lewdness under circumstances which he or she should know will likely cause affront or alarm.”
Scafidi said he did have the authority to have police remove the voter under the indecency law, but he did not want to see the incident escalate further. He said she put her shirt back on as soon as she stepped out of the voting booth and cast her ballot.
“I don’t know if
she was trying to have me get her arrested, but I thought it was better to just let things play out,” Scafidi said. “I don’t think there were more than 15 voters in the building at the time and if there were any children there, I didn’t see them.”
Scafidi said as bizarre as the incident was in the moment, poll workers mostly laughed it off and continued about their day after she left the polling location.
“If she felt it was her right, more power to her,” Scafidi said. “We all laughed about it as things were winding down, so I don’t know if it was a set-up, but I’ve never experi- enced anything like that. We had more important things to worry about; we had to get 2,000 people to vote safely,
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine