A cop has to surrender his weapons to vote

OK...an idiot running a voting station can't fathom that a cop can carry a weapon..it's part of his uniform and more to the point, it's part of his job.

Bangor police officer denied right to vote after refusing to surrender weapon - Bangor Daily News
BANGOR, Maine — In the 18 years that he has been a police officer in Bangor, James Dearing couldn’t think of a single time when someone has asked him to turn over his firearm.


Until last Friday...


...One of the election officials told Dearing he couldn’t bring his gun inside. The officer said he thought it was a joke.


Election warden Wayne Mallar then approached Dearing and reiterated the request: Turn over your weapon to another officer or we can’t let you vote.


Dearing refused.


“I would never relinquish my weapon,” the officer said later.


Mallar stood his ground.


The officer said he left the civic center Friday feeling embarrassed and insulted. Dearing posted details of the incident on his Facebook page late Friday and immediately began receiving strong responses.


“One fellow officer, who is stationed in Iraq, said ‘What am I over here fighting for?’” Dearing said.


The incident bothered the officer enough to draft a letter to Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, which the officer also provided to the Bangor Daily News. In it, Dearing writes that Mallar claimed he would be violating state law by allowing the officer to vote with his weapon holstered.


“Mallar claims that this was a state of Maine law, however, I cannot find such a prohibition listed in Title 21-A,” Dearing’s letter read. “Furthermore, many members of the police department and I have been casting ballots at the polls for many years in full uniform and have never been required to remove our firearms.”

Officer Dearing, don't waste your breath.  This man is an idiot and it's unlikely he knows the law that covers voting much less the authority of a peace officer.  I assume Maine's is similar to Texas' where  we have to have our duty weapon unless having it would cause a obvious hazard (e.g. mental health ward).

Reached by phone on Sunday, Dunlap said he had not yet seen Dearing’s letter but said there is no state law that says officers are prohibited from carrying firearms anywhere. The secretary of state could not remember a similar complaint in recent years.


“Most of the complaints we get are from people concerned about candidates stationed outside the polls and over-aggressive petitioners,” Dunlap said.

Thank you Mr Dunlap...I appreciate a politician who admits he doesn't know something.

Mallar said Sunday that he couldn’t comment on what happened other than to say, as warden, he is in charge
 of a polling place and has the right to make determinations about safety.


Dearing flipped the safety question around.


“What if someone else had come in with a gun concealed? Then I wouldn’t have my gun to protect people and do my job,” he said.

A different way to look at it Officer Dearing.  If the idiot had a problem such as a fight in the place who would he call?  You, or people like you.  Ask the brain dead bureaucrat if he was getting his ass kicked would be more concerned about the you having your duty weapon or the fact someone is beating him up?

UPDATE:

There is some common sense out there.

BANGOR, Maine — A city election official who refused to allow an armed, uniformed Bangor police officer to vote last week will not be working at the polls for the remainder of the 2010 elections. 

Bangor City Clerk Patti Dubois, who is in charge of staffing the city’s lone polling place, the Bangor Civic Center, confirmed Monday that Wayne Mallar, a longtime election warden in Bangor, has been asked to stay home.


Dubois said she planned to contact the officer later Monday to apologize and ensure that he has another opportunity to vote.

Thank you Ms Dubois...hopefully this was because of ignorance not any other issue.