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Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 SASS Wire Vet

Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984

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Article from the Union Leader.

 

Voters at the Exeter polls got an eyeful Tuesday when a woman who was told she couldn’t wear a politically themed shirt whipped it off and voted topless.

The unidentified woman cast the bare-breasted ballot after showing up at the Talbot Gymnasium polls wearing a shirt with images of President Donald Trump and the late Sen. John McCain and the legend “McCain Hero/Trump Zero.”

Town Moderator Paul Scafidi told the woman, who appeared to be about 60, that she would have to remove the shirt or cover it up because of laws against electioneering inside polling places — though Trump’s name wasn’t on Tuesday’s state primary ballot.

 

When the woman, who was wearing a mask, pointed out someone wearing a shirt with an American flag, 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 it was her choice, and before he could say anything more, the shirt was gone. She was not wearing a bra.

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

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

Following the awkward encounter, Scafidi said the woman got her ballot and voted.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the curtains were removed from the voting booths to eliminate more surface touching as a safety precaution, which enabled people to see the backs of voters as they marked ballots.

Exeter Select Board member Lovey Roundtree Oliff got a full view of the incident from her post at a ballot machine.

“It wasn’t like a quick escape to the closet,” Roundtree Oliff said.

Fortunately, Scafidi said, the incident occurred during a mid-afternoon lull, with about 15 voters at the polls. Scafidi said he also didn’t notice any children around.

“If the place was packed like a normal presidential election, I might have had a different thought about it,” he said, adding he also would have felt differently if the woman tried to “flaunt it.”

Scafidi, who has been involved in Exeter’s elections as a town official for nearly 30 years, said this encounter was a first.

“Hopefully it won’t happen again,” he said.

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.

Shine said the woman did appear to cover her breasts with her shirt as she stood at the plastic barrier while the ballot clerk looked up her name.

Police weren’t nearby.

Roundtree Oliff, who said the incident lasted about 20 seconds, did not consider it a criminal act that required police intervention.

“This is not the battle,” she said.

Exeter Police Chief Stephan Poulin confirmed that police didn’t get involved and said the interaction with Scafidi was “brief” and “did not interrupt anyone’s voting process.”

Town Manager Russ Dean said the town does not have an ordinance prohibiting female toplessness in public.

The state’s public indecency law states that someone 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.”

Select Board member Julie Gilman also said police involvement wasn’t required.

“By the time the interaction occurred there was no action for them to take,” Gilman said. “If she wandered around the (polls) you could make the case of public nudity that was inappropriate.”

Women going topless in New Hampshire is an issue that’s grabbed headlines before. Three women who were part of the “Free the Nipple” campaign were arrested in 2016 in Laconia after they prompted complaints when they removed their tops at a beach. The city has an ordinance that prohibits the “showing of female breast with less than a fully opaque covering of any part of the nipple.” The women’s convictions were later upheld by the state Supreme Court.

Dan Hynes, a Manchester lawyer who represented those women, said the voter at the Exeter polls violated no state laws.

“Under state law it’s completely legal what she did, at least as far as any public indecency,” he said.

Hynes said the voter didn’t engage in any criminal conduct and that a woman being topless at the polls also wouldn’t create a safety issue.

Hynes also took issue with election officials demanding that the woman remove her shirt for alleged electioneering, because Trump’s name wasn’t on the ballot.

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Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 SASS Wire Vet

Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984

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2 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

I fail to see an issue with this.  If a guy can go in without a shirt a woman should be able to do the same.

We make far too big an issue about skin in public.

It’s case law in NY. A young woman was arrested in NYC, spent a night in jail, sued the city and was awarded $250,000.

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sassnetguy50 SASS Wire Vet

sassnetguy50

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From her perspective 

https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/voters/topless-voter-has-no-regrets-after-removing-shirt-at-exeter-polls/article_934c30e0-6f8f-593c-8619-73e3e449ae6d.html

 

 

Since Tuesday, she has become known as the “Topless Voter.”

The woman, who ripped off her T-shirt after objections that it was too political to wear inside the Exeter polls, said she has no regrets.

When told she would have to remove it to vote, that’s exactly what she did.

 

“It was a good chuckle for all. Nobody called me any names. They just laughed,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified. The story about her baring her breasts on Primary Day made national headlines.

The 60ish-year-old voter, who wasn’t wearing a bra, never expected to become a spectacle when she donned her custom-made shirt with pictures of the late U.S. Sen. John McCain and President Donald Trump. “American Hero” was written under McCain, and “American Zero” under Trump.

She thought she might be headed for trouble when an election worker at the door of the Seacoast School of Technology said she couldn’t wear the shirt inside to vote.

The woman pointed out that a voter behind her had on a T-shirt with an American flag and a Christian cross and a message about voting for “God and country.”

When the worker left to get Town Moderator Paul Scafidi, she said the voter with the flag/cross shirt entered, and she followed.

“I was like, ‘Well, I’m going in, too,’” she said.

She eventually made her way into the polling location in the Talbot Gymnasium, where she was approached by Scafidi, who told her she couldn’t wear the shirt.

Scafidi said Wednesday that the woman’s shirt could be considered electioneering, which is why it wasn’t permitted.

The woman told the veteran town official that if her shirt wasn’t allowed, the flag/cross shirt shouldn’t be either.

She said Scafidi repeated that she couldn’t wear the shirt and started to walk away.

 

“I said, ‘Well then, can I vote naked?’ He turned to me and said, ‘If you want to.’ So I took off my shirt,” she said.

She said she kept on her mask because removing it would have been “unhealthy.”

“The mask stayed on, as did my pants and my shoes,” she said.

Scafidi has said he told the woman that she would have to remove the shirt or cover it up.

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

Scafidi said he told her it was her choice, and moments later, the shirt was off.

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

The woman proceeded to the area where the ballot clerks were seated, checked in, got her ballot and walked over to the booth to vote. She said she put her shirt back on while she was in the booth.

“I filled in my little circles and put my ballot in the little machine and started to walk out the door,” she said.

She maintains she never should have been told to remove the shirt because it didn’t refer to any candidate on the primary ballot. She said the incident has prompted more discussion about breasts than voting rights.

The woman said she has always been supportive of efforts like New Hampshire’s “Free the Nipple” campaign, though she doesn’t actively participate in such movements.

“It’s the old argument that men can go shirtless and women can’t and that our behavior is considered insidious behavior, which sexualizes and criminalizes a woman’s rights. True to form, I’m going to say that men immediately went to sexualize the entire episode, but it’s America. That’s what we teach our boys,” she said.

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Joke 'um

Joke 'um

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Given the diversity in relative attractiveness of the female anatomy amongst the torsos that populate the electorate, one wonders if widespread topless voting would tend to stimulate or depress voter turnout.

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Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 SASS Wire Vet

Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984

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18 minutes ago, Joke 'um said:

Given the diversity in relative attractiveness of the female anatomy amongst the torsos that populate the electorate, one wonders if widespread topless voting would tend to stimulate or depress voter turnout.

It would lead to more people hanging around the outside of the polls.

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Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 SASS Wire Vet

Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438

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20 minutes ago, Joke 'um said:

Given the diversity in relative attractiveness of the female anatomy amongst the torsos that populate the electorate, one wonders if widespread topless voting would tend to stimulate or depress voter turnout.

 

I can tell that you have little experience with topless 50 year old women from New Hampshire.....

 

LL

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