Posted on 11/09/2004 9:07:07 AM PST by NYer
JEFFERSON, La. --
She'd already signed the precinct register when an election worker said her Bush-Cheney T-shirt amounted to illegal electioneering. So Debbie Dupeire pulled it off.
Dupeire, who voted in a sports bra, exercise pants and flip-flops, said she was afraid she would lose her chance to vote if she left to turn her shirt inside-out: the elections workers might not remember her, or might be away on break when she returned.
"I really thought it was OK to wear my shirt. I didn't go there to cause trouble," said Debbie Dupeire, a 38-year-old makeup artist from Jefferson who said she always votes.
Under state law, candidates' names cannot be displayed within 500 feet of a polling place.
Jefferson Parish Registrar of Voters Dennis DiMarco said he wished someone had seen Dupeire's shirt as soon as she came in, and told her then.
Veteran poll commissioner Dorothy Angelico - one of two female commissioners who broke the news to Dupeire - said the T-shirt wasn't spotted sooner because she and other commissioners were overwhelmed by the number of voters in the crowded space they share with two other precincts.
"I'm 80 years old ... and I've never seen anything like it," Angelico said Friday, still chuckling about Dupeire's quick decision to get down to basics and vote. "It happened so fast, I don't think my husband and the other male commissioner even saw it happen."
Dupeire said she understood the request and is not angry, but thinks Jefferson Parish may need more poll workers.
"I'd been in line wearing the shirt for 15 minutes, and no one said anything until I was about to vote," said Dupeire. "Had they told me before I signed the book, I would have gone out and turned my shirt wrong-side out.
"But I wasn't going to leave after signing because I would have had no proof that I hadn't voted. I just did the fastest thing I could do to vote."
Exercise your right to bare ??? ....
If she were a Kerry lover, she probably would be considered sex-crazed and demon-possessed.
Puppies!
My kinda woman!
Her's or his? Yuck!
Depends on the person... Some people would chase the other voters away...
Massive fraud in every state of the Union, but the proper decorum must be observed. Suits and ties are required, sir, at this bordello!
Still happens, at least as recently as 2001. The cops aren't too uptight about it.
Great for her! She was willing to give the shirt off her back to get Bush back in office.
In Greene County next door to Montgomery, I stood behind a woman with a "W 04" shirt. I was not offended.
And a sports bra probably covers more. After having my kids I got very comfortable with my body. Being seen in my bra doesn't embarrass me any more. Gee, I actually became liberal in one area of my life over time!
Or perhaps busts for Bush.....
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