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IPFS News Link • Voting and Elections

He wore a Trump hat and 'deplorables' shirt to vote. Texas police arrested him.

• Washington Post

Brett Bartlett Mauthe arrived at his Texas polling place Monday morning ready to vote.

It was the first day of early voting in Bulverde, a tiny town 30 minutes north of San Antonio.

On his head he wore a hat supporting GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, Mauthe told KSAT 12 News. His T-shirt read "basket of deplorables," a reference to a comment Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton made about Trump's supporters.

Mauthe was stopped before he could cast his ballot.

According to the election code, not just in Texas but in many other jurisdictions across the country, campaigning for or promoting a political candidate within a designated space around a polling place is prohibited. In Comal County, that's 100 feet. The crime is electioneering, reported the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung, a class C misdemeanor.

Mauthe was asked by poll workers to remove the Trump hat, and he complied, the man told KSAT 12 News. But when they asked him to turn his "deplorables" T-shirt inside out, he refused.

"He wanted to take a stand," Bulverde Police Chief Gary Haecker told the Herald-Zeitung. "Unfortunately, he was arrested."


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