Can you wear a garbage bag to vote in SC? What state law says about Election Day apparel

Today is Election Day and voters around South Carolina will cast their ballots for local, state and national races.

While lots of politically engaged Americans have clothing representing their chosen candidates, South Carolina state law has rules about what voters are allowed to wear in and around their polling locations.

“Garbage” controversies

Garbage has been a major theme in the final stretches of both the Harris and Trump campaigns this election cycle.

At a Penn State campaign rally on Oct. 26, President Donald Trump likened immigrants to trash.

“We’ve become like a garbage can for the rest of the world,” Trump said. “They’re throwing all their garbage into our country.”

Speaking at a Trump rally in Madison Square Garden the following day, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico, a United States territory, “a floating island of garbage.”

In response, President Joe Biden had a “garbage” statement of his own on a video call with Voto Latino, a nonprofit dedicated to encouraging young Latino political engagement.

“They’re good, decent, honorable people,” Biden said about Puerto Ricans. “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”

According to The White House, Biden said “supporter’s” with an apostrophe, referring to Hinchcliffe, not Trump voters at large.

“Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage — which is the only word I can think of to describe it,” Biden wrote on social media. “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.”

For her part, Vice President Kamala Harris told supporters on Oct. 30 that Biden had clarified his comments and that she “strongly [disagrees] with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”

Regardless of the president’s meaning, the Trump campaign has seized on Biden’s remark. On Oct. 30, Trump held a press conference from a garbage truck branded with his campaign slogan at Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport in Wisconsin.

The fluorescent orange vest the former president wore in the truck wasn’t the only trash-related outfit in the family. Both of Trump’s older sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, wore trash bags and campaign hats for Halloween.

What you can wear to vote

In South Carolina, campaign materials aren’t allowed within 500 feet of the entrance to a polling place. This law extends beyond campaign signs to apparel like hats, buttons, shirts, bracelets and more.

“Campaign material on shirts may be addressed by wearing a jacket, coat, or sweater over the shirt or turning the shirt inside out,” the South Carolina Poll Manager’s Handbook says. “The material must remain out of sight while in the polling place and within 500 feet of the polling place.”

In addition to campaign materials with candidates’ names, you could be asked to remove apparel with official campaign slogans like “Make America Great Again” or “When We Fight We Win.”

However, general political messaging that doesn’t specifically reference a candidate on the ballot is allowed.

Apparel emblazoned with the word garbage, or even a trash bag itself, wouldn’t violate South Carolina law, so long as it doesn’t include the candidate’s name or slogan.

This story was originally published November 5, 2024 at 8:54 AM.