We're all familiar with the law that says no political paraphernalia is allowed within 75-feet of a polling place.
But this year, the Secretary of the State's office is telling local election officials that the prohibition also could be extended to gear promoting World Wrestling Entertainment.
That means a voter wearing a Cenation T-shirt or Generation D X Army pendant may be asked to remove it, depending in the discretion of poll workers. WWE is a worldwide entertainment company built by U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon and currently run by her husband Vince McMahon.
"Even though it doesn't say her name directly...the brand is so ubiquitously associated with the McMahons,'' said Av Harris, spokesman for Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz.
UPDATE: Republicans immediately pounced on the idea that WWE garb could be banished from polling places.
"There is absolutely nothing in the statute that prohibits someone from wearing an apolitical, nonpartisan piece of clothing to the polls,'' McMahon spokesman Ed Patru said. "This opinion seems overtly partisan, and anytime the state starts arbitrarily denying citizens the right to vote, democracy itself is under attack. It's very, very troubling."
Meanwhile state Republican Chairman Chris Healy said the idea that a voter could be asked to remove clothing with WWE images or phrases a "ridiculous act of voter intimidation."
WWE released a statement saying Bysiewicz had "threatened" the right of WWE fans to vote.
"Denying our fans the right to vote, denying them their First Amendment rights, regardless if they are Democrat, Republican or Independent, is un-American, unconstitutional and blatantly discriminatory," Vince McMahon, Chairman and CEO of WWE, said in the statement.