Official: OK to 'wear' candidate choice at the polls

E-mail about wearing candidates' gear is wrong

By: Wesley Young | JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: September 26, 2008

Voters can wear their buttons for McCain or T-shirts for Obama when they go to vote this fall.

They can even wear their Bob Barr ball caps. (He's the Libertarian candidate.)

Despite an e-mail circulating to the contrary, there's no law against voters wearing campaign literature when they go to the polls.

"There are some states where you can't, but in North Carolina it is considered a First Amendment right," said Robert Coffman, the director of elections in Forsyth County. "You are allowed to wear literature supporting a candidate or a cause."

An e-mail in circulation claims that people can't wear "any Obama shirts, pins or hats" when going to vote, and that people who do so risk being turned away from the polls.

Eric Ellison, a local volunteer for the Obama campaign, said he thinks that the e-mail is a tactic to discourage Obama supporters from voting.

"We are expecting a record number of voters for this election," he said. "Any time there is a mass dissemination of misinformation it can only be done to compromise people's right to vote."

Another Obama volunteer, Linda Lair, said that the e-mail seems like an effort to discourage people from wearing Obama gear -- and called it "silly."

Bill Miller, the chairman of the local Republican Party, said that when he visited the party headquarters yesterday he heard people talking about the rumor.

"They said they had heard it as a rumor and that it was going around pretty thickly," Miller said. He added he had not seen any e-mails about a clothing ban.

Apparently, the e-mail has been circulating for about two weeks. Coffman said that any time people have a concern about voting they can call the board of elections to get the right answer -- in this case, that it is OK to wear buttons, hats and T-shirts bearing the name of a candidate. There are some limits, Coffman said: People would not be allowed to carry a campaign sign with them or try to actively solicit votes. But things worn in support of a candidate are fine.

"Now I have to make sure our poll workers know this," Coffman said.

■ Wesley Young can be reached at 727-7369 or at wyoung@wsjournal.com.