SHAWNA MORRISON The Roanoke Times

David T. Mullins wears multiple stickers to protest a state policy banning them.

ELLETT VALLEY -- A Christiansburg attorney and substitute judge quietly showed his opposition to a state policy banning people from wearing campaign material to the polls Tuesday by wearing stickers with each presidential candidate's name when he went to vote.

When an officer of the election at North Fork Baptist Church, the polling place for Montgomery County's B-1 precinct, twice asked David T. Mullins to remove the stickers he had placed on the lapel of his black suit, he told her, "No, thank you. I'm just here to vote."

The officer, who declined to give her name, said Mullins' name will be forwarded to the county registrar's office, per policy. It is unclear what, if anything, will happen beyond that point.

Anyone in violation of the section of the law regarding exhibiting campaign material can be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor. According to the Code of Virginia, it is unlawful for any person within 40 feet of the entrance of any polling place "to give, tender or exhibit any ballot, ticket or other campaign material to any person or to solicit or in any manner attempt to influence any person in casting his vote."

Because "exhibit" and "other campaign material" are not defined in state code, the state board of elections met Oct. 14 to clarify it. The policy that the board adopted reads, in part: "No person shall show, display, or exhibit any material, object, item, advertisement, or piece of apparel, which has the purpose of expressly advocating the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate or issue."

Mullins said he believes that interpretation is a violation of citizens' First Amendment rights.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression and The Rutherford Institute agree. The three groups have said they plan to challenge the policy in court.

"The First Amendment protects your right to silently express your own personal views while in a polling place," Kent Willis, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia, said Tuesday evening. "We believe the state board of elections has misinterpreted the state law."

Willis said the groups wanted to see how the policy played out on Election Day and asked for feedback from voters.

"It appears that the policy was pretty unevenly enforced," Willis said. He heard from one voter in Chesterfield County who wore multiple McCain buttons to a polling place but wasn't approached. But a voter in Fairfax County was asked to remove a T-shirt depicting Ron Paul, who wasn't even on the ballot.

Mullins said he couldn't find buttons depicting each presidential candidate, so he wrote their names -- Baldwin, Barr, McCain, McKinney, Nader and Obama -- on stickers. He topped them with a seventh sticker that read "First Amendment" with a check mark.

He noted that he wasn't promoting or opposing any candidate and stressed that he was protesting the policy as a private citizen.

"I'm really voting for the First Amendment here," he said before he walked into the church about 4:15 p.m. "I think that if private citizens see something like this, they've got an obligation to speak up."

His attorney, Christopher Tuck, said he was contacted by Mullins about the issue and agreed to represent him.

Tuck said parts of the law regarding the 40 feet rule were designed during the civil rights movement "because you wanted people to be able to go to the polls unimpeded." Wearing a shirt or button declaring your candidate choice is not an impediment, he said.

"That's simply your individual right to free speech," he said.

Mullins was allowed to vote. When he finished, he left his polling place with an eighth sticker -- one that said "I voted."

"At least I did the right thing," he said.