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What not to wear to the polls

For voting in person, you not only need to be concerned about a mask, but also have to watch out if you're wearing any campaign material bearing a candidate's name.

SAN DIEGO — In in California, campaign slogans are fine but candidate names are not allowed for in-person voting.

"If a person is wearing a Trump or Biden hat, they can not wear that inside a polling location. Even a picture - if it's a likeness of a candidate, that is not going to be allowed," said San Diego County Registrar of Voters Michael Vu.

Vu said displaying material endorsing a candidate is illegal and called "electioneering."

"What constitutes electioneering is when it is for or against a candidate or a measure, and it has to be specific to it. So although a motto or a slogan may be associated with a candidate or a campaign, or political party, that does not necessarily mean it constitutes electioneering," said Vu. 

Vu said although it doesn't happen very often in San Diego, voters still do it.

"I did not know that. I had no idea," said voter Nancy Prescott.

The Prescotts of Spring Valley voted early at the county polling place, but didn't know about the dos and don'ts of what to wear.

"A little bit too much. I just want to go in and vote. I think just all the extra hoops you had to jump through to get to the voting station itself, we had to stop three times before we actually got to the computer to vote, but the extra precautions, I can understand that," said early voter Cary Prescott.

Campaign signage, buttons and bumper stickers are allowed 100 feet away, but polling places are supposed to be a safe space.

"A sanctuary for voters to cast their ballots free of intimidation or interference or in this specific case, rhetoric," Vu said.

It's a law so important the California Secretary of State Alex Padilla sent out the rules in a memo outlining there should be no display of a ballot measure's number, title, subject, or logo, or buttons, hats, pens, shirts, signs, or stickers containing information about candidates or issues on the ballot.

This includes doing so near a vote-by-mail dropbox.

But slogans "Make America Great Again," "Black Lives Matter," or "Build Back Better" are totally fine to wear to the polls. And if you show up wearing campaign material by accident, all is not lost.

"[We] let the voter know that they can turn their shirt inside out. They can go into a restroom or take that hat off and put the pin in your pocket," Vu said.

But if the voter refuses to leave the polling place while wearing a candidate's name, there can be consequences, including a misdemeanor or felony. 

These rules for clothing and signage have been in effect throughout the early voting process and will be until Election Day.

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