Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has released new electioneering guidance that allows voters to wear clothes with political slogans, like “Make America Great Again” or “I’m With Her,” to polling locations.
Under the new policy, voters are only prohibited from wearing attire that displays a candidate’s name, the name of a political party, or support or opposition to a ballot issue.
“Slogans associated with a political party, candidate or ballot question or issue are not prohibited if they do not violate these three prohibitions,” according to the press release.
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Previous guidance issued by the Ohio Secretary of State’s office—that it is now calling “erroneous”—generally prohibited any clothing with slogans associated with candidates, according to Ideastream.
According to the new guidance, even if a person is wearing prohibited attire and refuses to take it off or cover it, they must still be allowed to vote if they’re eligible to vote at that location.
“But what we’re not interested in doing is, again, creating a scene,” Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said at a press conference Monday. “(What) we’re not interested in doing is holding up everybody else that’s trying to get their civic duty done at the polling location, and so if somebody insists on wearing that clothing, we’re going to write their name down, turn it over to the county board of elections, which could choose to pursue prosecution because it is a crime, but we’re not going to keep that person from voting.”
Ohio law does not explicitly outline what can and cannot be worn to polling places. Instead, it only prohibits “campaigning” inside a polling place’s neutral zone, which encompasses the polling place and a 100-foot area from the door voters use to enter it, according to a Cuyahoga County Board of Elections document.
This story has been updated with new information.
