Texas man arrested after wearing Trump hat, shirt to vote

Brett Mauthe, 55, of Bulverde, was charged with “electioneering,” a misdemeanor, for wearing Trump campaign garb to a polling place on Monday, Oct. 24, 2016. Brett Mauthe, 55, of Bulverde, was charged with “electioneering,” a misdemeanor, for wearing Trump campaign garb to a polling place on Monday, Oct. 24, 2016. Photo: Comal County Sheriff's Office Photo: Comal County Sheriff's Office Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close Texas man arrested after wearing Trump hat, shirt to vote 1 / 23 Back to Gallery

In what amounted to a harsh civics lesson, a would-be early voter spent some time Monday at the Comal County Jail in New Braunfels after wearing partisan political garb into a polling place.

Charged with “electioneering,” a misdemeanor, Brett Mauthe, 55, of Bulverde was released on $500 bond. In an account he gave to KSAT 12 the next day, Mauthe admitted going into a polling place in Bulverde wearing a hat supporting Donald Trump and a T-shirt bearing the words “Basket of Deplorables.”

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Mauthe said that he got rid of the hat as requested but would not budge on removing the shirt, leading to his arrest. Contacted Thursday afternoon, he was less forthcoming.

“The reason I’m not going to talk any more to the media is that the story gets twisted around, and I don’t want to give you any comment,” he said.

Bulverde police did not return calls Thursday seeking information about the case.

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Cynthia Jaqua, the Comal County elections coordinator, said while people occasionally have to be admonished, it is almost unheard of for anyone to be arrested on an electioneering charge.

The law, she added, is not always well understood.

“It’s in the election code. Electioneering is prohibited within a 100-foot marker. You cannot express views for or against a candidate or political party by wearing buttons, T-shirts, hats, whatever else or carrying signs,” she said.

Most people who make the mistake manage to avoid going to jail, she added.

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“Every election we have to advise people. Even if it’s a school bond issue. They wear candidates’ shirts and we just have to remind them. ‘Please go into the restroom and turn it inside out.’ This is the first time I recall someone getting arrested,” she said, during two decades working at the county election office.

“A gentleman did walk in a little while ago with a slogan for Trump, and when I asked him to please take it off, he was real nice, and took it off,” she added, while working a polling site Thursday afternoon in New Braunfels.

And while Bexar County elections officials said Thursday they were not aware of any similar incidents thus far during extremely heavy early voting, Bexar GOP Chairman Robert Stovall reported otherwise.

He said his party’s unofficial poll watchers had observed a disturbing partisan T-shirt incident on the South Side of San Antonio.

“They (poll officials) made one of our voters, who had a Trump T-shirt, take the T-shirt off. The two ladies behind him with Hillary shirts didn’t have to take their Hillary shirts off,” Stovall said.

“You can’t do it,” Stovall said of electioneering. “You can be belligerent if you want, but you won’t end up in a good place,” he said.