A Bexar County man was arrested and charged after repeatedly hitting an elections clerk at the Johnston Library polling center last week, according to an incident report.
District Attorney Joe Gonzales said in a statement Saturday that his office intends to “vigorously prosecute” Jesse Lutzenberger, who was charged with injury to the elderly — a third-degree felony.
“No one has the right to assault, threaten, harass or intimidate an election employee or voter,” Gonzales said. “Please rest assured that if anyone in our community engages in this conduct at a polling site, the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office, under my leadership, will hold those individuals accountable.”
According to an incident report from the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, Lutzenberger hit the elections clerk on his way out of the voting booth after having been asked to remove a red “MAGA” or “Trump” hat.
The suspect was wearing the hat in line, according to the report, and complied with the clerk’s first request that he remove it in accordance with election law, which prohibits campaign “paraphernalia” in the voting booth.
After voting, the report says the man put the hat back on while still in the booth and headed for the exit. When the clerk tried to follow him, the BCSO report says the suspect struck him “several times on his chest and facial area.”
The suspect’s wife, who was present, reportedly asked her husband to stop.
Deputies arrived on the scene shortly after and placed the suspect in custody.
The clerk received medical treatment and returned to work, said Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacquelyn Callanen, who sought to reassure voters about the security measures in place at the county’s 51 Early Voting centers.
“We have all the necessary security,” Callanen said. “Our poll sites are safe.”
Callanen said Friday morning that a peace officer would be stationed at the Johnston Library location following the reported assault.
“Normally you don’t have any police presence or sheriff’s presence, because they look at it as intimidation … but we are going to place one at this site,” she said of the Johnson Library location. “This is a first for us.”
Sheriff Javier Salazar said Friday that he didn’t anticipate beefing up law enforcement presence at other voting locations.
As elections staff seeks to accommodate an unusually large number of early voters in the first days, Callanen said, some tension has risen in the lines while voters wait.
“We’ve had more voters than we’ve ever seen,” Callanen said. “As the lines are getting longer, obviously people are getting a little bit more testy, … but the officials are doing a fantastic job.”
