Woman Told She Couldn't Wear a Political Shirt in the Polling Place So She Went Topless Like a Free American

Source - Voters at the Exeter polls got an eyeful during Tuesday’s state primary when a female voter who was told she couldn’t wear her political shirt decided to whip it off and vote topless.

The bare-breasted ballot vote took place after the bra-less woman showed up at the polls at the Talbot Gymnasium wearing a shirt with images of President Donald Trump and the late Sen. John McCain and a political message.

Exeter Select Board member Lovey Roundtree Oliff, who got a full view of the incident while manning a ballot machine, said it appeared to be a pro-McCain/anti-Trump shirt.

Town Moderator Paul Scafidi told the unidentified woman that she would have to remove the shirt or cover it up because it could be considered electioneering inside the polls, even though Trump’s name won’t appear on the ballot until the general election in November.

The woman pointed to someone else who was wearing a shirt with an American flag, but she was told that was different.

“She said, ‘You want me to take my shirt off? That’s what you want?” Scafidi recalled.

He told the woman that it was her choice, but before he could say anything more, the shirt was gone.

“Boom! The shirt’s off,” he said, “and she’s standing there saying, ‘How’s this?”

Scafidi said he responded by saying, “Whatever you want, ma’am.” ...

Exeter voter Andrea Shine got a good laugh as she watched things unfold.

“I think we all kind of needed it. With everything going on in the world, it’s like, who cares? You couldn’t even see many reactions (from voters) because there were masks on their faces,” she said, adding that the woman had a mask as well.

This is democracy at its finest. Regardless of where you place yourself on the political spectrum or upon which side of the vast gulf which divides us you find yourself, this is a the sort of grassroots self-governance we can all get behind.

Thank you, Town Moderator Paul Scafidi. Thank you, Exeter voter Andrea Shine. And thank you especially, anonymous citizen for carrying out your right to vote. We can all take a lesson from this. Reasonable people acting reasonably in the performance of their civic duties. You can't allow electioneering within so many feet of the polling place. She was politely asked to change her shirt. She did. No one was offended. No one was harmed. On the contrary, they all seem to be amused by it. 

This is a shining example of the peaceful transition of power we always congratulate ourselves for every November. And just the way the Founding Fathers would've wanted the situation resolved. Do you think for one second that framers of the Constitution like Ben Franklin or John Adams wouldn't have wanted to see their neighbors going Guns Out at the polling place? Well, I guess not, since they didn't give women the vote. But if they'd known they'd be seeing topless women casting their ballots in 2020, they probably would've been more open to the idea. And we probably would've gotten Suffrage a lot sooner. 

So while I think we're all dreaded Election Day for the chaos and vitriol that is surely to come no matter what happens, it's rewarding to know some people still no how to conduct themselves. This is New Hampshire living up to their license plate slogan, "Live Free or Die."