THE BURRO BRIGADE
The Burro Brigade started during the big push for Texas to turn blue in 2018. Beto O'Rourke’s campaign for U.S. Senate is what really fired up the state to mobilize to oust Senator Ted Cruz. It was during this time where so many groups were on the ground registering folks to vote throughout the state. One of the issues that still needed to be addressed was access to the polls and voter protection, especially with a growing number of violent voter intimidation incidents at many polling sites where Black and Brown Texans would go to cast ballots.
So in an effort to challenge the normal methods of getting people to vote, we decided to create an all volunteer group of people who were willing to pickup people and take to the polls. Of course design and printmaking had an important role in creating a more energetic approach to engaging voters. So I came up with a classic goofy-esque character which paralleled the effectiveness of political cartoons. Thus was born, BILLY THE BURRO AND THE BURRO BRIGADE.
We then setup a series of BURRO RALLIES to get volunteers geared up and ready for pickups. Once we organized our dispatchers and drivers, we were ready for the first days of early voting. So many good things came out of this project, such as the realization that many of the pickups were the elderly and people from the special needs community.
Today we have over 4o volunteer drivers who cover Bexar County and 3 surrounding counties. Every volunteer gets a couple of screen printed tshirts, and screen print posters to decorate their vehicles. The last election in 2020 was when we started to work with the Texas Civil Rights Project and other groups to offer voter protections at the polls. We had several volunteers roving throughout Bexar County, who were monitoring and reporting any intimidation tactics used on voters. Right now we are starting to rev up the engines otra vez for the 2022 elections. GO BURROS GO!!!!
For more info on The Burro Brigade and how to start a chapter in your area, visit WWW.BURROBRIGADE.COM
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