Union Voters Intimidated at Polls

December 2002
by Richard Bermack

Imagine going to your polling place and having two large men in suits with radio earpieces, order you to take off your union jacket, and interfere with volunteers viewing the list of people who have voted. Only in Jeb Bush’s Florida, you say? No, try northern California. That is exactly what happened to SEIU members in Salinas during the last election. Local 535 field representative Wren Bradley has filed a complaint with the Monterey County Election Department. The following is an excerpt from her letter to the election department:

“In the traditional mode of political campaigns, we had our volunteers checking precinct lists throughout the day at the different poll sites to determine if our targeted voters had, in fact, already voted. Early in the evening, we had three of our volunteers go over to check the lists at Frank Paul School. They were Nina Taporco, Olivia Martinez, and Estella Cardenas. When our volunteers sat down to look at the list, Mr. Garcia came over to Nina Taporco, who was wearing a union jacket (but no message or other buttons on it) and told her that she had to remove the jacket because there was a union symbol on it. He stated that no one could wear any “union paraphernalia” within 100 feet of the election area. Our volunteers tried to assert their rights but Mr. Garcia insisted that Ms. Taporco remove her jacket. At that point, Ms. Taporco removed her jacket and the volunteers began checking the hanging list. After only a few minutes of looking at the list, Mr. Garcia came over and removed it saying, ‘You’ve had this list too long, other people need to check it.’”

Bradley was informed that the election department did a preliminary investigation and in it the poll worker claimed that two large men in suits with radio earpieces, who he presumed were FBI agents, told him it was illegal to wear union jackets and ordered him to approach Taporco and the union volunteers. The department is investigating the connection of these two men to the Republican Party.