Judge: Tea party and voter ID buttons can be banned from polling places

A Minnesota District Court judge refused on Monday to issue a restraining order allowing tea partiers and vote-fraud monitors to wear “Please ID Me” buttons and t-shirts with tea party slogans in polling places on Tuesday. Election Integrity Watch requested the restraining order after Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said the materials would not be allowed in polling places.

“You can’t wear campaign buttons in a polling place, state law says you can’t,” Freeman said last week. “And election judges can’t even wear, you know, ‘Stamp Out Election Fraud.’ So that’s going to be interesting in the next few days.”

Minnesota Majority, the lead organization in the Election Integrity Watch coalition, filed a restraining order on Friday. The group is handing out “Please ID Me” buttons and has announced a $500 bounty on cases of voter fraud.

The Northstar Tea Party Patriots also want to wear t-shirts that read, “Don’t tread on me,” “Liberty,” “We’ll Remember in November,” and “Fiscal Responsibility, Limited Government, Free Markets” along with the tea party logo.

Attorneys for the government said the buttons and shirts could be construed as partisan. The judge agreed and dismissed the case.

An email from Minnesota Majority to supporters following the court decision told members to wear their buttons despite the ruling:

“For now, we are recommending that you proceed with wearing your Election Integrity buttons or Tea Party apparel to the polls, knowing you are within your rights, but don’t allow yourself to be disenfranchised. If you are challenged by an election judge because of what you are wearing, you’ll have a decision to make. You can simply remove or cover the challenged item and you’ll be allowed to vote, or you can refuse and demand your right to vote and the election judge will allow you to vote, while also recording your name and you could be charged with a petty misdemeanor.”