2nd Lawsuit Filed Over What Arizona Voters Can Wear To The Polls

From The Arizona Daily Star:

Second lawsuit filed over what Arizona voters can wear to the polls


Story(27) CommentsSecond lawsuit filed over what Arizona voters can wear to the polls

The Associated Press Arizona Daily Star
Posted: Friday, October 29, 2010 7:17 am
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Font Size:Default font sizeLarger font size.A government watchdog says it plans to file a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order preventing Maricopa County election workers from dictating what voters wear to the polls Tuesday.



Goldwater Institute attorney Clint Bolick says he had hoped to avoid a lawsuit.



Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne says a federal court ruling that permits one particular Flagstaff tea-party T-shirt to be worn in Coconino County polling places does not apply to Maricopa County.



County Recorder Helen Purcell says the court ruling was narrowly written to apply to Coconino County, not other state counties.



Bolick tells The Arizona Republic they were shocked Maricopa County would take such a position after the institute successfully challenged Coconino County.



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And, related, from The Arizona Republic;
 

Judge: 'Tea party' T-shirts OK inside polling places

69 commentsby Dianna Nanez - Nov. 1, 2010 03:25 PM

The Arizona Republic

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Maricopa County voters can wear "tea party" T-shirts into polling places Tuesday, a federal judge has ruled.



U.S. District Court Judge James Teilborg issued the opinion hours before polls opened for the 2010 general election. The ruling applies to clothing representing other groups, as well, as long as the apparel does not support or oppose "a candidate ...proposition...political party on the ballot."



Teilborg last week had issued a temporary injunction, allowing a Coconino County resident to wear her "tea party" T-shirt - a decision that prompted Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne to clarify that the ruling does not apply to Maricopa County or to any other kind of clothing.

"We're not singling out the tea party," Osborne said last week. "This applies to anybody wearing anything that is campaigning."



A voter who shows up on Tuesday wearing campaign material such as T-shirts, buttons, hats or stickers will be asked to remove it, cover it or turn it inside-out.



The Goldwater Institute, which is involved in the Coconino County lawsuit, sent Osborne a letter calling the county's decision not to allow tea party shirts that don't expressly advocate for or against someone or something on the ballot unreasonable and discriminatory. The tea party is not an official political party in Arizona.







Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2010/11/01/20101101tea-party-t-shirts-polling-places-ruling01-ON.html?source=nletter-breakingnews#ixzz145DtVX4X