GOP seeks ban on political clothing at polling places

HARRISBURG - If top state Republicans get their way, you can forget about wearing that Obama T-shirt when you step up to cast your vote Nov. 4.

Palin pins will be off limits, too.

It's called "passive electioneering" and GOP officials today called on the Rendell administration to enforce a little-known, decades-old law they say bans such things.

"We strongly believe Pennsylvanians should be able to look to the polling place as a safe harbor, free of any type of electioneering, without any outside influences," Robert Gleason, chairman of the state Republican Party, said at a Capitol news conference.

In past years, some local election officials across Pennsylvania - but not in Philadelphia - have enforced the provision, going as far as asking voters to turn their T-shirts inside out.

But this year, the Rendell administration has softened its stance on the issue.

The ACLU and the League of Women Voters last month asked the Pennsylvania Department of State to weigh in on the topic, believing that preventing voters from wearing T-shirts with a candidate's name on it infringes on their freedom of speech.

Two weeks ago, Department of State officials sent letters to the state's 67 county boards of elections advising them that, although state law bans electioneering inside a polling place, it doesn't define what the term means.

Merely wearing shirts and buttons doesn't constitute electioneering as long as no other attempts to influence voters are made, the memo said. In short, the state is letting the county boards of elections decide whether to police what people wear.

Having to decide on their own whether a shirt stepped over the line would turn election poll workers into "fashion police," said Sandra Newman, a former state Supreme Court Justice and head of the Republican Party's Fair Election's Task Force.

"We might even have to become Vogue editors."

Newman joined Gleason at today's news conference.

Their comments came as two local election officials from Allegheny County were filing a lawsuit in Harrisburg asking Commonwealth Court to force the state to impose a uniform standard against T-shirt, buttons and other campaign paraphernalia inside polling places.

Allowing individual counties to decide has led to confusion, said Gleason, who accused the Rendell administration of creating its own laws as opposed to enforcing those on the books.

The department of state is standing by its memo.

"We want to see every eligible Pennsylvanian have the right to vote. We don't want to get them bogged down in thinking about taking off a T-shirt," said Chet Harhut, who heads the state's bureau of Commissions, Elections and Legislation.

Some counties don't plan any changes.

T-shirts and buttons won't be allowed inside any of the 418 polling place in Montgomery County, said Joseph Passarella, its director of voter services.

Before the flap Passarella said he hadn't heard of "passive electioneering" before.

"No one had," he added. "And by saying it's passive electioneering aren't you implying that it is a form of electioneering."

Still, Passarella said it's much ado about very little. In the past 15 years, there might have been one or two instances in Montgomery County of someone making an issue out of someone wearing a political T-shirt or button.

Philadelphia officials, however, say they plan to continue with a longstanding practice of allowing voters to wear whatever they want.

"We have interpreted the law the same way for more than 30 years: You can wear a button, wear a T-shirt as long as you are in the act of voting," said Fred Voigt, the deputy city commissioner. "It's called the First Amendment."

Gleason stressed that the issue was not partisan, and called on the state Democratic Party to join their push. That won't happen.

"While people are losing their jobs, their homes are being foreclosed at an alarming rate and the economy is literally collapsing all around us, Republicans are worried about buttons and T-shirts at polling places," said Abe Amorós, spokesman for the State Democratic Party. "It's further evidence of how out-of-touch they are."