An election worker was relieved of his post at a West Hollywood voting center on Tuesday after he repeatedly wore political attire in support of former President Donald Trump at the polling location, county officials said.
Los Angeles County election officials addressed the incident in a tweet after someone had shared a photo of the poll worker at a voting center located at Plummer Park Tuesday morning.
The photo shows the worker wearing a “Where’s Hunter?” T-shirt and baseball cap bearing the “Trump 2020” logo, along with a coronavirus face mask that appears to say “Trump Train.”
“Isn’t this s*** illegal?” the tweet said.
“The election worker was contacted and advised that the attire was inappropriate and unacceptable,” the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk tweeted in response to the photo. “Based on his response and reports that other workers had previously counseled him on this, he was released and is no longer working at the vote center.”
Mike Sanchez, a spokesperson for the Registrar-Recorder’s office, said the poll worker was initially warned against wearing political attire to the voting center on Monday, when he showed up to work wearing Trump campaign regalia.
Sanchez said the clerk’s office and the supervisor at the West Hollywood polling place instructed the poll worker not to wear political attire, but the man came back Tuesday morning wearing Trump apparel.
“He was counseled and told not to wear anything political, but he still came wearing it,” Sanchez said. “Because of his response and not complying with the rules, he was released.”
California election laws prohibit what’s known as “electioneering” within 100 feet of an entrance to a polling place. That includes displaying a candidate’s name, likeness or logo, or specific references to ballot measures by number, title, subject or logo. It also includes no audible broadcasting of information about candidates or measures.
It’s unclear whether the law applies to clothing donning the “Trump 2020” logo, given that Donald Trump is not a candidate in the California recall election.
Meanwhile, county election officials on Tuesday said they’ve been seeing a “good” turnout.
Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan said “close to 40% of registered voters in the county have already turned in their ballots and that’s even before the afternoon and evening votes.”
“I would describe voter turnout as active in this election. It’s difficult to compare this to any other election because the recall is such an unusual election,” Logan said. “We haven’t had a statewide recall since 2003 the voting process and the demographics of the state and the county are very different than they were.”
