An Atlanta woman’s attempt to bring some much-needed humor to her local precinct fell flat yesterday when she encountered the completely humorless volunteers:
That tweet shows Joanna Chesley in the Election Day attire she says she wore at 7:30 a.m. to vote at the Forsyth County Administration Building. When she tried entering, she was blocked by a volunteer who said her T-shirt violated Georgia law since it supported a candidate or political party within 150 feet of a polling station. “I go to cast my vote for presidency of this country,” Chesley told the Atlanta Journal Constituion, “and my First Amendment rights are violated at the polls.” She initially thought maybe the volunteer “was joking,” but alas, this volunteer was not: The person had her escorted into the bathroom, where her options were to turn the shirt inside out or not vote at all.
Chesley’s actual thoughts on electing wine are unclear, but she said her goal was simply “to make people laugh and relax.” Other poll workers apparently found their co-volunteer’s move a tad draconian: “If the context has anything to do with any slogans, they’re asked to turn their shirt inside out,” one told the paper. “But that shouldn’t have happened.” Besides, by the end of the day, everyone had fully embraced the hard-liquor party anyway.
