AUSTIN — A field director for Democratic Congressional candidate Mike Siegel was arrested in Waller County after standing up for Prairie View A&M University students, whose voter registrations the county questioned.

The campaign worker, Jacob Aronowitz, was arrested Wednesday after he delivered a letter demanding the county update the voter registration status of the students who attend the historically black university. The letter was addressed to County Judge Carbett “Trey” Duhon and elections administrator Christy Eason.

Aronowitz snapped a photo of a county clerk to serve as proof that the letter was received. The clerk objected to having her photo taken, and police were called.

In a news release Wednesday, Siegel said police officers asked Aronowitz who he worked for and what political party he was with before they arrested him.

On Tuesday, the deadline to register to vote, the county said thousands of students were registered under the wrong address, one that university and local officials told them to use, and would have to submit change of address forms, the Houston Chronicle first reported.

Prairie View A&M doesn't allow students to have mailboxes on the campus, which is about 50 miles northwest of Houston. So in 2016, officials told students to register using 700 or 100 University Drive as their address. In March before the primary elections, officials discovered the 700 University Drive address was outside of the voting precinct.

The students were allowed to vote in the primaries, but the issue came up again Tuesday when Eason said students needed to fill out change of address forms with their dorm addresses. She said they need to be completed before Election Day, but no one will be denied the right to vote.

The letter Aronowitz delivered was signed by Siegel, Waller County Democratic Club President Denise Mattox and Waller County Democratic Party Chair Rosa Harris.

"We hereby demand that Waller County update its registrations of any student currently registered at 100 or 700 University to reflect that they are part of precinct 309," the letter read. "And further, we demand that Waller County require no further documentation of affected students."

Siegel is running for the U.S. House seat held by Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin.

After two hours, Aronowitz was released and charged with a misdemeanor for failure to identify himself and had his phone taken by the county jail.

This afternoon, one of my regional field directors was arrested in Waller County while delivering a letter to the County Judge.



The letter demanded immediate action to protect the voting rights of students at Prairie View A&M University.



Press release is attached. #TX10 (1/4) pic.twitter.com/5ED0JdZHF7 — Mike Siegel (@SiegelForTexas) October 11, 2018

“No one should face hostility when they are trying to have their voices heard by their own government,” Siegel wrote in the news release. “This extreme reaction by Waller County officials is unacceptable, but sadly not surprising given the county’s long history of abusing power and voting rights violations.”

Eason said she could not comment on the arrest because it happened at the courthouse and not at her office.

“All students will be able to vote on Election Day, they just need to fill out the form before then,” she said. “No one will be denied to vote and no one will have to vote provisionally.”

The News was unable to reach Duhon and Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith.

This is not the county’s first conflict regarding students and voting. In the 1970s, Prairie View students took Waller County to the U.S. Supreme Court because the county required students to fill out a residential questionnaire to vote. At the time, the county was majority African-American. The court ruled it a constitutional violation and gave Prairie View students the right to vote.

Today, Waller County is 70 percent white and 25 percent African-American, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Waller County is also where Sandra Bland, the 28-year-old black woman who was arrested in 2015 during a traffic stop, was found dead in her jail cell.