By Tom Davidson
MERCER COUNTY — Primary colors may be in this fall, but keep the clothes simply patriotic and not political when voting or you might be asked to keep it covered up in Mercer County, elections director Jeff Greenburg advises.
The rules against electioneering trump freedom of expression arguments when it comes to wearing clothing or accessories that tout political candidates, according to a long-standing policy to separate politicking from the polling place, Greenburg said.
“We have not changed our stance,” he said, although what voters wear has become a statewide issue this year, with Commonwealth Court to decide whether “passive electioneering” is allowed in Pennsylvania polls.
The political 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 past restrictions on clothing and political buttons. Mercer County is one of them.
But two Pittsburgh-area elections officials sued to have the memo rescinded.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.”
This fight over the interpretation of a state law designed to shield the polls from partisan electioneering could determine which presidential candidate’s supporters might be turned away from the polls in this battleground state.
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 called a news conference in support of dress codes.
Democrats have benefited from a surge in voter registration this year, with young adults 18 to 24 making up the largest group of new registrants, according to statistics from March 30 to Sept. 8.
Today is the deadline for people to register to vote for the Nov. 4 election.
Douglas Hill, head of Pennsylvania’s association of county commissioners, believes the state’s 67 counties are now evenly split on the question. Before the memo, counties leaned toward banning politically polarizing clothing and buttons because “they didn’t want to get into fine-line disputes,” he said.
In Mercer County, what voters wear “is really a minor issue,” Greenburg said.
“In my two years in the (elections) office I can only recall a couple of times that we got calls,” about what people were wearing, he said.
“Voters have never given us a problem,” he said.
People wearing campaign shirts or sporting buttons are asked to cover them up before voting, per past practice, he said.
“We’ve never had an issue with this in Mercer County,” he said.
But with popular interest in this year’s presidential election soaring and with Pennsylvania considered a keystone in the winning electoral puzzle, the battle has drawn national and even international attention, according to a Google News Internet search.
That the court might rule and provide hard-and-fast rules on what can and can’t be worn is assuring, Greenburg said.
“My belief would be once (there’s) a ruling there will finally be some uniformity,” he said. “It will be solved one way or the other so this won’t be a problem in the future.”
In Pennsylvania, campaigners must keep 10 feet from the entrance to polling places, he said.
That rule is different from those of other states: 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. In Kansas politickers must be 250 feet from polls, according to Greenburg.
In Kentucky, elections officials last month told poll workers they should admit voters decked out in campaign apparel, after e-mails circulated warning that Obama supporters would be turned away if they wore shirts and pins.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
