Poll worker fired for turning away voters with BLM shirts

Authored by apnews.com and submitted by VPStaceyAbrams

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A poll worker in Memphis, Tennessee, has been fired after turning away early voters who were wearing “Black Lives Matter” and “I Can’t Breathe” shirts, an elections official said Monday.

The worker was fired Friday after officials received a call from a witness at the Dave Wells Community Center in Memphis, Shelby County Election Commission spokeswoman Suzanne Thompson said.

Tennessee law does not allow voters to wear items bearing the name of a candidate or a political party in a polling place. But state law does not prohibit statements such as “Black Lives Matter,” Thompson said.

The number of voters who were told to leave was not immediately known, but Thompson said it was only a few. The poll worker thought the statements were tied to the Democratic Party, Thompson said.

“That was pretty bad,” she said. “They were not supposed to be turned away.”

Early voter turnout ahead of the Nov. 3 election has been strong in Memphis and throughout Tennessee. Early voting ends Oct. 29 in the state.

shaka_sulu on October 20th, 2020 at 03:31 UTC »

Anyone interested CNN did a guide on what not to wear on election day. TLDR all states are different so check your state policy but nothing endorsing a candidate.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/14/us/election-what-not-to-wear-trnd/index.html

nudistinclothes on October 20th, 2020 at 03:00 UTC »

The wife and I saw one lady here in Houston with a Dan Crenshaw shirt on at the polling place. It was a t-shirt and she was carrying a sweater, so I assumed she’d voted and then took off her sweater, idk

Also heard of one guy who voted and then shouted “woo, Trump 2020!”

DragonTHC on October 20th, 2020 at 02:00 UTC »

The number of voters who were told to leave was not immediately known, but Thompson said it was only a few. The poll worker thought the statements were tied to the Democratic Party, Thompson said.

JFC, this is what we're dealing with.