Cockrel breaks election law at polls, again

DETROIT — Interim Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. broke a state law this morning when he went in to cast his ballot in the special mayoral election wearing a yellow “Ken Cockrel Corps” t-shirt. Cockrel violated a state law that prohibits campaigning within 100 feet of a building where people are casting ballots. The law considers wearing campaign paraphernalia as campaigning.

Here’s how the law is described on the Michigan Secretary of State website:

No person is permitted to post, display or distribute any material that directly or indirectly makes reference to an election, a candidate or a ballot question in a polling place … or within 100 feet of any doorway used by voters to enter the building in which a polling place is located.

This isn’t the first time Cockrel overstepped this law. In fact, both Cockrel and his opponent businessman David Bing violated the same law during the special primary election in February.

Since then, the Detroit Free Press reported that the two candidates would not be reprimanded for the misdemeanor. Instead, the Detroit elections director Daniel Baxter sent them each a letter advising them of the law.

But on Tuesday morning Cockrel when went into his precinct polling station with he son, both of them were wearing yellow campaign T-shirts with the words “Ken Cockrel Corps” across the chest. They had no jackets covering the campaign paraphernalia.