INDEPENDENCE, Ky. (WXIX/Gray News) – A Kentucky man says a poll worker ordered him and others wearing T-shirts supporting former President Donald Trump to remove the shirts or leave without casting their ballots.
Voter Jason Draughn said it happened in Kenton County around 7 a.m. Tuesday.
According to Draughn, the poll worker met voters at the door after they waited about an hour to get inside Independence Senior and Community Center off Jackwoods Parkway.
“He was telling everybody to take off their shirts if they had Trump on them,” Draughn said. “He just told me it was the state law and walked away.”
He continued, “I feel like my freedom of speech and my rights were violated. I feel my dignity was compromised. I had to take off my shirt in the middle of the polling place and turn it inside out.”
Kentucky state officials said that shouldn’t have happened.
Michon Lindstrom, the spokesperson for Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, said voters can wear candidate gear such as T-shirts into polling locations to vote as long as they just vote and leave.
“They are able to wear campaign gear when they go in to vote,” Lindstrom said.
Kenton County Clerk Gabrielle Summe confirmed the actions did take place and called it a mistake.
“I can’t stop people. I’ve got 500 poll workers in 38 locations, a lot of whom have been working for a very long time with a different set of rules that existed in the past,” Summe said. “I’ve had people working for me for 13 years since I’ve been here, and that rule only changed a couple of years ago.”
She said poll workers undergo training for two hours and the rules can be confusing. She said she was initially told voters had to remove campaign hats and buttons, but they could wear campaign T-shirts and other clothing.
“I taught what I was told,” she said.
During early voting, Summe said she learned voters could wear hats and buttons, so she said she sent notes to poll workers that voters could wear anything they wanted as long as they weren’t talking to candidates in the polls.
She said she sent messages reminding poll workers on Tuesday with the worker offering an apology.
Draughn said another election worker at the senior center apologized to him while he was still at the senior center and told him she planned to “have a discussion” with the worker in question.
However, the 47-year-old said he feels like he and other voters were targeted because they support Trump.
“I wasn’t going to get out of line and stand in line for 45 minutes to an hour again,” Draughn said. “One woman took off her shirt and walked around in her brassiere and voted because they made her take off her shirt.”
Draughn said another issue came up when he tried to snap a photo of a sign at the senior center advising voters how to report issues at the polls.,
“I took my phone out to take a picture of a sign that said if you have issues, or your rights have been compromised call this number, and the same election worker said, ‘You can’t have your phone out while you are in here,’” Draughn said. “So, I just agreed and put it in my pocket and continued on. It’s a shame they went to that level, but I held my composure because voting is so important to me.”
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