The polling places’ new clothes

‘ ‘ ‘ When it comes to supporting a political candidate, few things seem more innocuous than… ‘ ‘ ‘ When it comes to supporting a political candidate, few things seem more innocuous than wearing a badge, button or shirt with the candidate’s name on it. But at least two poll workers in Allegheny County think that wearing campaign merchandise also constitutes a solicitation of votes and want such items banned in polling places. In fact, they disagree so strongly that they’re suing the Pennsylvania Department of State because of it. ‘ ‘ ‘ The lawsuit is a reaction to a letter that the Department of State sent out to the county boards of all 67 Pennsylvania counties that allows the counties to treat T-shirts, buttons and other political paraphernalia how they deem fit ‘mdash; basically, whether to ban these things from polling places or allow potential voters to show up and vote while wearing them. ‘ ‘ ‘ The plaintiffs, Richard Kraft and John Dickinson, believe that such items would constitute ‘passive electioneering.’ Electioneering is defined as active work for and promotion of a political party, and it’s banned at polling places under state law. ‘ ‘ ‘ But the American Civil Liberties Union has defended the decision of the Department of State. The ACLU’s legal director in Pittsburgh, Witold Walczak, said in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that people have ‘a First Amendment right to express a personal political message.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ While it’s difficult to argue that banning political T-shirts and buttons is a violation of First Amendment rights ‘mdash; there are very specific provisions for polling places, and all speech isn’t necessarily protected in them ‘mdash; it’s much clearer that, were such things to be allowed in polling places, they would probably have a negligible effect on the integrity of the voting process as a whole. ‘ ‘ ‘ Voting is inherently a partisan political activity. People go to polling places specifically to vote for one candidate over another, and the decision-making process that leads them to choose which candidate gets their vote is inherently political and, by the nature of American politics, partisan. ‘ ‘ ‘ Asking people to leave their candidate’s merchandise at home or remove it before voting does nothing to affect this decision, just as someone seeing another person’s political T-shirt would do almost nothing to change his mind about whom to vote for. ‘ ‘ ‘ All it’s really doing is asking people to be unbiased and nonpartisan about a process that has bias and partisanship written into it at its core. ‘ ‘ ‘ There are definite problems with allowing people to wear political items into a polling place, as it then falls to poll workers and other officials to decide where to draw the line between ‘passive’ and ‘active’ electioneering. ‘ ‘ ‘ For instance, wearing a T-shirt saying ‘McCain/Palin ’08’ could be very different from handing out pamphlets saying, ‘Vote for John McCain!’ Leaving it up to poll workers, many of whom have political beliefs of their own, to make the distinction between whom to allow and whom to throw out could be problematic. ‘ ‘ ‘ It’s difficult to disagree with the fundamental position of the ACLU, but it is easy to find examples in which their reasoning could lead to problems Nov. 4. And since Allegheny County has yet to decide whether to ban or allow ‘passive electioneering,’ it remains to be seen whether any of these problems will appear in the county on Election Day.