Protester arrested at elections office

[Tab]

Gainesville police said they arrested a protester Friday who wore a Kerry-Edwards T-shirt and a George W. Bush mask outside the Hall County elections office.
...
The mask charge is from a law designed to combat the Ku Klux Klan, Robinson said. Exceptions include holidays and special occasions, including Halloween. Robinson said Dodds also "reeked of alcohol about his person."

The elections office, on Dawsonville Highway, was open for the last day of early voting for Tuesday's general election. Earlier, Robinson said poll workers asked Dodds' wife to turn her infant child's Kerry-Edwards shirt inside out.

[damntexdem]

1. Good thing the infant didn't have a mask on ...

or he/she would have gone right into the slammer. Hey, isn't a day when officials are trying to take away voting rights a special day?

[freetobegay]

2. Why do we need to stoop to their level?

[w4rma]

4. How is that happening here? The man was arrested for wearing a Bush

mask outside the elections office the day before Halloween.

[freetobegay]

5. He was asking for trouble & he got it. End of story.

[Moderator]

3. Please remember to put a link to the story

in your post.

Went to google news and looked up the link:

http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/stories/20041030/localnews/47955.shtml

[Durtal]

6. Um.. someone explain to me the mask charge

The article says that the man faced charges of "wearing a mask that conceals the identification of the wearer". Is this because he was trying to do an early vote while wearing the mask? The article makes it sound like he was simply outside the polling place wearing the mask.. How could that be illegal?

This is rather freaky, as I was just planning this afternoon to go wear a Bush mask & suit downtown and hand out flyers. I could hardly be arrested for doing THAT, could I?

[Maeve]

7. You can be arrested in some places for just that

It is used against theives and Klansmen, but many local laws are written so that ANY concealment of your identity can get you arrested.
You might want to check with your local police.