Fair Play on Election Day
To the Editor:

I would like to share an incident that occurred on Election Day.  I was contacted by the Charles County Democratic Committee to be a poll captain.  I was already committed to work at a polling site in St. Mary's County in the morning but I agreed to work at the Benedict Firehouse in the afternoon.  I was planning to stay there until the evening but I did wonder why no one else would work at that firehouse.  
While I was setting up my table next to the Bush supporters, a police officer greeted me.   I asked him, "Why doesn't anyone want to work this site?  You all are friendly, right?"  To which the officer said they were and that I would be fine.   Feeling pretty outnumbered, about six Republican supporters to one me, I asked my family to join me there. 
After my family arrived, my husband and I talked while my children held up Kerry/Edwards signs.  A short time later, a man in a pickup trunk pulled in dangerously close to my youngest daughter.  Both my husband and I were shocked.  He angrily told us, "This is Bush country and you are on my land!  If you all don't leave in ten minutes, I'll have you arrested for trespassing!"  The place we were standing was being used by voters for parking because the parking lot across the street from the firehouse was too small.  I tried to tell him that an officer saw me set up and that there was no other area outside of the "No Electioneering" line where we could place our table.  Furthermore "No Trespassing" signs were not posted and we were set up within the easement of a county road.  He did not care and was very angry.  He repeated what he said before and told us the Bush people could stay on his property because he was voting for Bush.  We packed up and drove around the polling site.  There was indeed no public land we could find outside of the "No Electioneering" line.  How can this be?
I know our signs for Kerry/Edwards, Hoyer, and Mikulski were not going to sway anyone on Election Day.  Minds are already set but I know I like to see signs for the candidates I'm going to vote for when I approach my polling place.  It seems odd to just have one party represented when obviously two candidates are running in each race.   My purpose in sharing this incident is to prevent any other person from having to experience the hostility my family faced that day.  We will gladly go back to the Benedict Firehouse but there has to be a spot where both parties can display signs, set up tables, and greet voters.  Who is allowed and who is not should not be determined by the whim of one biased landowner.

Alice Willingham
La Plata