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Tuesday, April 16, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Voters Seek Bill Clinton’s Arrest After Poll Visits

(CN) - Nearly 90,000 people have signed a petition calling for former President Bill Clinton's arrest for visiting a Massachusetts polling place on Super Tuesday.

A 12 second video filmed Tuesday shows the former president greeting poll workers in the gymnasium, of the Holy Name school in West Roxbury, Mass. Tuesday, accompanied by Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.

According to Boston magazine, it was Clinton's second visit to a polling place that morning, his first being to the Newton Free Library in Newton, Mass.

The pool report from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's campaign said her husband posed for pictures, kissed an elderly woman on the head, and signed another voter's Hillary sign.

But the Boston Globe reported he told one voter to "pull the lever for Hillary."

Once inside, Clinton purchased a cup of coffee from a bake sale and then shook hands with the poll workers.

The incident didn't sit well with Veronica Wolski, a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders, living in Chicago, Ill.

Wolski, whose Facebook profile picture features a Sanders campaign button, posted a petition on the Change.org website, calling for Clinton's "arrest and prosecution" for allegedly violating Massachusetts's campaign laws.

In it she points out that Massachusetts law forbids "campaigning within 150 feet of a polling station, or in any way interfering with the right to vote." Since the petition went live, 88,903 people have signed it.

Heather Sullivan, director of communications for Change.org, said Wolski is a private individual and not a member of Change.org's staff.

"We are an open platform that anyone can use to start a petition," Sullivan said.

Sullivan said she would contact Wolski on Courthouse News' behalf, but the publication has yet to hear from her.

In a primary day interview with WNZ News Radio in Boston, Massachusetts Secretary of State William Gavin said the former was "certainly free to visit polling places," but confirmed that campaigning with 150 feet of them is strictly forbidden.

He also said that when he learned for the visits, he reminded the Clinton campaign what the rules are.

"He was good president so we just want to make sure that he knows the rules," Galvin said. "He's not form here, so he may not know."

Hillary Clinton won the Boston metropolitan area, including Newton and West Roxbury, by more than 20,000 votes.

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