Exeter woman votes topless after anti-Trump shirt disallowed

https://www.seacoastonline.com/news/20200909/exeter-woman-votes-topless-after-anti-trump-shirt-disallowed

EXETER – A woman voting at Tuesday’s primary found an unorthodox way of protesting the town moderator, who ruled her T-shirt was a form of electioneering: She took it off and voted topless.

Town Moderator Paul Scafidi said the woman walked into the Talbot Gymnasium in the afternoon wearing a “McCain Hero, Trump Zero” T-shirt. As a ballot clerk was checking her name off the voter list, Scafidi said he informed the woman she could not wear a shirt with a political candidate featured on it while she voted. Scafidi said another woman nearby was wearing a T-shirt supporting the American flag and the woman with the “Trump Zero” shirt questioned why she was being singled out, which escalated into a brief argument.

State law states no person, “shall distribute, wear, or post at a polling place any campaign material,” in part, and if convicted, is subject to a fine up to $1,000.
“She asked why her and not me?” Scafidi said. “I said she was going to have to cover her shirt and (a shirt) supporting the American flag was not electioneering. That’s my opinion, and that was my call as the moderator.” Scafidi said at that point, the woman asked him if he wanted her to take her shirt off, despite not wearing anything underneath.

“I said, I’d rather she not,” Scafidi said. “But she took it off so fast, no one had time to react so the whole place just went, ‘woah,’ and she walked away, and I let her vote. She could’ve just gone into the hallway and turned it inside-out.”

New Hampshire’s public indecency law states an individual can be found guilty of indecent exposure and lewdness if the person “fornicates, exposes his or her genitals, or performs any other act of gross lewdness under circumstances which he or she should know will likely cause affront or alarm.”

Scafidi said he did have the authority to have police remove the voter under the indecency law, but he did not want to see the incident escalate further. He said she put her shirt back on as soon as she stepped out of the voting booth and cast her ballot.
“I could have (had her removed), but I didn’t want to exacerbate the whole thing,” Scafidi said. “I don’t know if she was trying to have me get her arrested, but I thought it was better to just let things play out. I don’t think there were more than 15 voters in the building at the time and if there were any children there, I didn’t see them.”

“If she felt it was her right, more power to her,” Scafidi said. “We all laughed about it as things were winding down, so I don’t know if it was a set-up, but I’ve never experienced anything like that. We had more important things to worry about; we had to get 2,000 people to vote safely, and check-in and count 2,000 absentee ballots.”
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I like this gutsy gal!