JUPITER, Fla. – Things got testy at a Florida polling station when a verbal altercation between a Trump supporter and a Clinton voter became physical Tuesday.
Donna Tatlici, 58, was passing out Donald Trump literature at the Community Center in Jupiter, Florida, when 52-year-old Tom Garrecht showed up to vote.
Tatlici told the Palm Beach Post Garrecht shouted at her, “I don’t need anyone to tell me who to vote for.” She says she responded, “I’m not here to do that. I’m just here to give you the information.”
A witness told WPBF that he heard Tatlici say, “That’s a little man. Yeah. That’s a little man,” after Garrecht voted and exited the station. Tatlici claimed that Garrecht “came right into my face” shouting expletives.
Tatlici pulled out the pepper spray she keeps on a keychain and warned him to back away. When he didn’t, she pepper-sprayed him in the face. She said Garrecht then tackled her to the ground and “started punching her.”
Garrecht says he was trying to knock the pepper spray out of her hand.
Tatlici suffered a scrape on her elbow and her watch broke during the scuffle.
Witnesses told the Palm Beach Post that Garrecht looked like “he was picking a fight.”
Afterward, Garrecht admitted that he should have gone to his car, saying he isn’t one to “just let things go.”
Tatlici said she was “so embarrassed” after the incident.
Garrecht may face charges in the altercation, depending on the states attorney’s office decision. Tatlici and other Trump supporters were well beyond the 100-foot boundary from the polling station and she isn’t expected to be charged.
