You can’t wear political clothing at the polls, so this woman voted in her bra - nj.com

It seemed like a simple request.

Election workers asked a voter in Hamilton Township to take off her MAGA hat and cover up her shirt expressing support for former President Donald Trump.

Enraged, the woman took off her hat and shirt, spinning it like a lasso. She then proceeded to vote, wearing her bra, after hurling vulgar epithets at the workers before a crowd of as many as 100 voters, several people told NJ Advance Media.

In Gloucester Township, a voter waltzed into the polling location wearing a red cloak and white bonnet, inspired by The Handmaid’s Tale, the dystopian book and television series about a patriarchal society where women are forced into sexual slavery to bear children for their masters.

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She complied with the request to remove her cloak and bonnet before voting, and then she walked out quietly while putting her outfit back on.

Early voting began in New Jersey last Saturday and turnout has been heavy so far. In addition to long lines, poll workers around the state have had to contend with, and sometimes confront, belligerent people who insist on showing their candidate preferences at the polls. Many may not realize that wearing political messaging while voting is not allowed, election officials said, but some simply don’t seem to care.

Indeed, ”electioneering” is against the law in the Garden State.

People cannot “distribute or display any circular or printed matter or offer any suggestion or solicit any support for any candidate, party or public question within the polling place or room or within a distance of 100 feet of the outside entrance to such polling place or room, or within 100 feet of a ballot drop box in use during the conduct of an election.”

That includes wearing T-shirts, hats or buttons, for example, that support a candidate or can be interpreted as trying to sway a voter’s opinion, election officials said. Bumper stickers and flags on vehicles within 100 feet of polling places are also prohibited.

When the “handmaid” voter arrived at the Gloucester Township polling location for early voting on Saturday, at first, poll workers thought she was wearing a Little Red Riding Hood costume, perhaps for a Halloween party.

She was dressed in a flowing red cloak with a white bonnet.

Then workers saw the bloody red handprints on the bonnet.

“When the board worker asked, she said it was Handmaid’s Tale,” said Sarah Napper, one of Camden County’s election administrators, who said the costume was a political statement. “We asked her to remove it. She did, but she proudly put it back on when she walked out of here.”

The woman who ultimately voted in her bra in Mercer County took offense when she was asked to remove a MAGA hat and T-shirt.

It happened at the Colonial Fire House in Hamilton Township, where voters waited on a long line for their turn to cast a ballot, said Jill Moyer, chair of the Mercer County Board of Elections.

“I asked her to remove her hat and said if you want to go get a jacket from your car, I will hold your place in line or you could go into the bathroom to turn the shirt inside out,” Moyer said of the Saturday encounter. “Before I could get it all out, she took off her shirt and flung it around.”

The woman started to curse at election workers and call them “nasty” names, Moyer said.

Moyer said she went to call the police but the woman quickly voted and left the building.

But before the voter left, one witness told NJ Advance Media, they captured a photo of the woman as she voted in her bra.

The witness said before the voter left, she put her shirt back on, inside out this time, and she also donned her hat, but not before she had another message for poll workers. “She gave the finger and said ‘Suck my ****,’” a witness said.

“I felt so bad for (the poll workers). They’re just trying to do their jobs and people are saying this god-awful stuff,” the witness said.

But it didn’t end there. The photo vent viral on social media, getting the attention of vice presidential candidate JD Vance. He retweeted the photo and called the voter a “patriot.” Vance later removed the post.

It’s not just about apparel. At the Galaxy Mall in Guttenberg in Hudson County on Saturday, Ben Applegate was standing in line with several dozen people, all waiting for their turn to vote. He said he heard someone start clapping for the crowd, as if they were happy to see so many people had come to cast their ballots. It was a man leaning over the second floor railing, he said.

“Then he yelled ‘Go Trump,’ and a man in a MAGA hat in line behind us said, ‘F*** it, I’m not afraid,’ and also started chanting ‘Trump,’” Applegate said. “I told him it was a polling place and they couldn’t do that here, and told him to shut up.”

Ben Applegate is photographed wearing his "I voted" sticker. He said someone shouted support for former president Donald Trump at a polling site.Courtesy Ben Applegate

The man who was upstairs came down and started walking through the line, shouting, “Trump! Where were you all in 2020?” Applegate said. “The poll workers were mostly older ladies, and I felt so bad for them. They were conferring with each other about what to do.”

Maryanne Kelleher, Hudson County’s Superintendent of Elections and Commissioner of Registration, said the man was “quickly shooed away by onlookers.”

“What we were advised is that Saturday’s incident was a momentary event that ended quickly, and was beyond 100 feet of the polling entrance,” she said.

Election officials across the state noted several dozen reports of electioneering, mostly people who were asked to remove hats or to cover T-shirts, and most complied without incident. But when voters don’t cooperate, poll workers call police for backup.

It happened at the Lower Township Library voting site in Villas, Cape May County, on Saturday, when a voter grew defiant.

“A gentleman had a Trump hat on. He was asked to remove it but he refused,” said Michael Kennedy, registrar and department head of the county Board of Elections. “One of the poll workers called the police. He told them he was being harassed by one of the other voters.”

The man removed the hat when police asked, Kennedy said. At least, he temporarily removed it.

“I was told right before he went in to vote that he put the hat on after the police left,” he said.

With Halloween on Thursday, some election officials said they are expecting more mischief.

“We are waiting for Halloween when someone comes dressed at a candidate,” said Beth Thompson, administrator for the Hunterdon County Board of Elections.

Back in Camden County, at the site of the Handmaid’s Tale incident, Napper, a Republican, said there are times when voters test the limits of the electioneering rules while accusing election workers of partisanship.

“When you talk to a voter and the first thing they say is, ‘Oh, you must be a certain party,’ that’s when I introduce my counterpart,” she said, giving a nod to Nellie McFadden, who serves as the county’s Democratic elections administrator.

“They are testing us,” McFadden said.

They shared the story of another voter who came to cast her ballot wearing a “Make Halloween Great Again” T-shirt. It included a picture of someone wearing a hockey mask like the one made famous by the Mike Meyers character in the Halloween movie franchise.

“It also had Trump hair, so you’re pushing it there,” Napper said.

“The voter said she was being discriminated against when she was asked to cover it up. She said it was a Halloween shirt but it’s a political statement as well,” Napper said.

“We do get pushback, but we try to explain to them we just want to run everything smoothly,” McFadden said. “We want everybody to vote and to be fair and kind to one another. We want this to be a pleasant experience for everyone.”

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Karin Price Mueller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @KPMueller.

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