Alabama Allows Voter Intimidation Devices In Voting Booths
Commonly carried by domestic terrorists.
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When Jimmy Allen walked into the polling station at the Lakeview Volunteer Fire Department on June 3 to cast his ballot in Alabama’s primary election, he had no idea that the .40-caliber Smith & Wesson M&P Pro Series C.O.R.E. pistol strapped to his side – a weapon that fires 15 rounds from a single clip, plus the one already in the chamber – would raise eyebrows.
Mr. Allen votes regularly, and no one had given his gun so much as a second glance before. But on this day, a polling official – his Aunt Rita, actually – took issue.
“She threw her hands in the air and said, ‘No guns allowed!’ ” Mr. Allen recalled last week. “I laughed, because I thought she was being funny.”
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Allen later protested the policy, which led local officials to seek an opinion from the state attorney general’s office on whether counties can legally bar guns from polling stations. The answer was no: Alabama’s open-carry laws list some buildings in which unconcealed firearms are prohibited, but voting precincts aren’t on the list.
So, in Alabama, voter-ID is required, unconcealed loaded firearms are optional. Good to know. As for Allen, a 50-year-old computer technician, he’s left his job to hit the campaign trail – he’s now running for county sheriff as a Republican, with the backing of a gun-rights group called BamaCarry.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/guns-the-voting-booth
