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About test masters, and also the speech is
meant for

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a lot of people on Carleton because my sort of

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persuasive speech is to try to make sure that
the

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people, especially those in Carleton, those
Democrats vote after that.

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I'll get into that as to why that's gonna be

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an issue.

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I want to talk today about the County
Commissioner's Court.

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I'm running for Denton County Commissioner
Precinct 2, and there's

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two main points of contention voting centers
and 287G, which

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sounds like a mouthful.

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But let me start with voting centers.

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Right now, and also tomorrow, by the way, is
voting

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day.

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More specifically, it's the last day to vote,
and the

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last day to vote has very special rules that
does

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not have the same rules as early voting.

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You can only vote at your one voting location.

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You cannot vote anywhere in the county like
you can

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during early voting.

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You can only vote at your one location and
just

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on the last day to vote.

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This is confusing the people and it causes all
sorts

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of redirects, and this is something that we in
the

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Denton County Democratic Party straight up see
as voter suppression.

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We have seen college kids come up and say, Oh

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man, I gotta make it to class, and I can't,

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I guess I can't vote today.

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James Schultz was telling me a story of a man

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who was in a wheelchair had to be
hydraulically lifted

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out of his car.

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He's on a breathing machine, rolled in, got
told, I'm

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sorry, sir, you've got to go somewhere else.

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This is straight up voter suppression.

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The Denton County Republican Party makes all
sorts of accusations

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like, oh well, if we have this, then you know,

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people will be able to vote in one place, then

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vote again in another location.

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That's not true.

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As soon as that machine scans your driver's
license, it's

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marked in the system, and every four minutes
there's a

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broadcast signal that goes from uh from the
central unit

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to all the other voting locations and saying,
hey, this

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person has voted already, they cannot vote
again.

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Another accusation by uh Melinda Preston, the
chair of the

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Denton County Republican Party, says that uh
if we uh

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I'll have voters vote at their one voting
precinct, it

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will help people to get to know their precinct
chair.

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As a precinct chair, I tell you, this is
nonsense.

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I'm not hanging out at the voting location all
day

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for every single day of early voted.

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And also, it's nonsensical to say that
countywide voting is

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insecure when we already have it for that
multi-day early

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voting period, but not on the one last day of

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vote.

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This is targeted voter suppression

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I'm not, I should have timed myself because I
don't

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know how much time I have.

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I want to go into 287G next, which sounds like

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a mouthful.

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It's a contract between Denton County and ICE.

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287G is a contract program that deputizes
local law enforcement

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as ICE officers.

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This is a type of thing where I need to

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I'm even stressed here.

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If I had a Republican audience, this was a
mixed

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audience, then I would say the following.

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Donald Trump's so-called one big beautiful
bill already desperately overfunds

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ICE.

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ICE is very well funded.

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Why should my local property taxes have to go
up

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further in order to support a local ICE
program here

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in Denton County?

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These officers, by the way, cannot leave
Denton County.

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They cannot go to border.

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They're confined within the county because the
officers under Sheriff

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Tracy Murphy.

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The next point of contention we need to go
into

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that ties into this ICE operation is the fact
that

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we have zero federal jails here.

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We have zero state jails, and we only have one

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county jail here in Denton County.

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And this is why the ICE situation is going to

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be a compounded issue here in Denton County.

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Because we have a really bad track record here
in

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our prisons here in Denton County.

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He was arrested because he was having a mental
health

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crisis.

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Grandma called 911.

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He was put in jail.

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And in um September 13th of 2023, he was
pronounced

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dead, and the Tarrant County Medical Examiner
found that the

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cause of death could be dehydration.

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A 27-year old died in Denton County prison due
to

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dehydration.

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And now that grandmother's suit in the county.

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There's a couple other instances.

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Thsere another incident of a woman suing the
county because

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uh her job was forced off and they would not

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allow her to wear her head job.

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another There

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was also mysterious death that also happened
as well here

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in Devon County, but we do not have a very

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good track record here in our Denton County
jail.

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And so what keeps me up at night, what I

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fear is if ICE officers are going to do here

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what they're doing in other cities, because we
see on

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CNN and MSNBC how ICE officers are just
grabbing people

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off the streets and out there in certain
cities.

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Donald Trump says he's gonna send them out to
all

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the woke areas.

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Is that UNT?

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UNT is right here in Denton County.

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If ICE was to come here to UNT and just

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patrol around, you know those college kids are
gonna protest.

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We already see that ICE will just grab anyone
who

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protests against them.

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Our jails have a bad track record as it is.

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If those ICE officers grab someone, throw them
into our

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Denton County jail, and then walk away.

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We are the ones who are held responsible for
anything

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bad that happens to them, or any injuries that
they

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sustained, or God forbid, like in the case of
Keith

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Aaron Verde, this 27-year-old, if he dies, we
get sued.

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And when I say that we the county get sued,

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that means our property taxes paid for that.

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So I stand strongly against this ICE
integration.

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I vote in favor of I am standing in favor

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of voting centuries.

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Now here comes the third part.

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So I need to talk about my political opponent.

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He's a very liked man, and this is why this

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election is going to be actually very
difficult.

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It looks like this should be easy because my
political

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opponent only won during the Biden midterm
administration only by

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two and a half percentage points in the
center.

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But I can tell you this.

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Two members of the Carrollton Democratic Club,
the board members

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told me to not run for this because they said,

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hey, he's very well liked, you can have a hard

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time.

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I've met multiple people at the Carrollton
Democratic Club who

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know this guy.

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My own pastor knows him when I mentioned his
name.

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Like this guy is very well known.

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He's what he was the mayor of Carrollton for
nearly

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a decade.

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So this is going to be a really uphill battle

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And what I need to do right now is persuade

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everyone for my fellow Carrollton Democrats to
vote Democrat.

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I know that he's the Carleton mayor for a very

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long time.

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But I want to put this out there.

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Kevin Faulkner is a good man.

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He has the acumen to know that 287G is bad.

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Because when he was the mayor of Carrollton,
he voted

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in terminated 287G in the Carleton level.

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By the way, I should mention that city
councils can

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override county commissioners within their
within their cities.

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So he voted against it.

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But now that he's the commissioner, now that
there's an

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R next to his name, he voted in favor of

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287G and applied it to the entire county.

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So as in a mayor role, when he was a

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nonpartisan mayor, he voted against it.

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He terminated it.

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But now as a county commissioner, he's voting
in favor

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of it.

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And he's also very silent.

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He's not talking at all of anything one way or

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the other about voting centers, even when
asked.

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So I want to say this.

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I like Kevin Faulkner.

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I do.

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I like my opponent.

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But as much as I like him, I would like

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county white voting on election day even more.

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As much as I like Kevin, I would really like

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us to end this connection that we have with
ICE

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at the county level even more.

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And that's why I'm running for this position.

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And that's why I want to persuade everyone,
especially in

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Carrollton.

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I know that your beloved mayor is very well
liked,

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but he's not voting in our favor.

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And that is why we need someone to run in

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this election, and that's why I'm filling this
role.

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I thank you for your time, and I hope to

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persuade you towards this election.

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Thank you very much.