Beto O’Rourke, founder of well-funded voter-registration group Powered by People, warned during a Thursday event in San Antonio that President Trump may use U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to intimidate voters during November’s midterms.
The alarm from O’Rourke — a former Democratic presidential, gubernatorial and U.S. Senate candidate — follows the state of Texas moving 1.2 million registered voters to its “suspense” list, meaning they need to update their registrations by Oct. 5 if they want to participate in the upcoming election.
What’s more, the GOP-led Tarrant County Commissioners Court this week voted to close 92 polling locations in a county of 1.3 million people. Some of the closed stations are in majority-minority neighborhoods.
“They’re going to be sending Border Patrol and ICE agents … to polling sites,” O’Rourke said at his voter-registration event in San Antonio. “And if you look Mexican, if your skin is a shade browner than mine, they’re going to stop you, ask you for your papers, send you back home and scare the rest of your family from even showing up.”
O’Rourke also said it’s possible that Trump and the Republican Party, in an attempt to “steal” the midterms, may try to nationalize the elections by ordering the National Guard to seize ballot boxes.
“We need to be in the streets, so when that National Guard unit in San Antonio is asked by Donald Trump on Nov. 3 to seize the ballot boxes in that precinct in San Antonio — because he knows that our candidates are going to win — that guard member will defy this illegal order and know the American people, more importantly the people of San Antonio, are with me,” he said.
O’Rourke spoke at UTSA-area watering hole The Block. The rally was a voter registration event organized by Powered by People, which works to get young people involved in progressive politics.
The rally was also attended by state Sen. Roland Gutierrez; Katy Padilla Stout, the Democratic candidate for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District; and Johnny Garcia, a Democrat running to represent the Texas’ 35th Congressional District.
With the election just 60 days out, Texas Democrats continue to surge in the polls. Recent surveys show U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, gubernatorial hopeful Gina Hinojosa and congressional candidate Bobby Pulido either ahead or in virtual ties.
After his speech, O’Rourke told the Current that the polls have Republicans scared, adding that he’s skeptical the party will be willing to give up power.
“The county judge and the Republican majority on the Tarrant County Commissioners Court admitted that they are trying to give Republicans an advantage by shutting down polling places in what they believe to be Democrat precincts,” O’Rourke said. “Also coincidentally, these precincts happen to be overwhelmingly Latino and Black. So, here you have one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States, and you’re reducing the number of polling places there by one-third. This is just one of the many tactics Republicans are using.”
San Antonio-area residents can check their voting registration status by visiting the Bexar County Elections website, or by logging onto votetexas.org.
Sign Up for SA Current newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
Related Stories
Ken Paxton omits rental income and mortgages from financial disclosures, obscuring his wealth
Trump endorses Ken Paxton while also trashing his clothes, looks and TV presence
Beto O’Rourke offering free beer, live music at Thursday voter-mobilization event near UTSA
