Texas Voter Turned Away Over Pro-2nd Amendment Shirt

On February 18 Hempstead, Texas voter Chris Driskill was turned away from the polling place when he went to vote in the Republican primary because he was a wearing a pro-2nd Amendment t-shirt.

WVUE ABC reports that the caption on Driskill’s shirt read, “2nd Amendment — America’s Original Homeland Security.” Officials considered the shirt “electioneering” because a proposition to “expand support” for the 2nd Amendment was on the ballot along with Republican primary candidates. 

Driskill said he was standing in the polling area when a gentleman standing behind him said, “You’ll either have to turn [that shirt] inside out or you’ll have to leave.” He said he did not understand what was going on at first, and was thinking “they just didn’t like something about the 2nd Amendment.”

However, a pertinent Texas election rule states: “During the time an early voting polling place is open for the conduct of early voting, a person may not electioneer for or against any candidate, measure, or political party in or within 100 feet of an outside door through which a voter may enter the building or structure in which the early voting polling place is located.”

During the 2010 elections a voter in Houston was turned away from the polls for wearing a shirt with images of Barack Obama on it. Although Obama was not on the ballot in the 2010 elections, officials said wearing images of “the de facto head” of the Democrat Party amounted to “electioneering.”

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins