Under the guise of “voter fraud,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has ramped up his harassment of Democratic Latino candidates, leaders, and even volunteers. His “election integrity unit” carried out a series of raids this week on the homes of people involved with Cecilia Castellano’s campaign for a state House seat.
Paxton’s team alleged in warrants for the raid “that a longtime Frio County political operator had illegally harvested votes for multiple local races in recent years” including Castellano’s 2024 primary, according to the Texas Tribune.
“Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office claims in a sworn affidavit that the aide, Manuel Medina, a former chair of the Bexar County Democratic Party and chief of staff to state Rep. Liz Campos, D-San Antonio, was recorded discussing a scheme to collect votes for Castellano with the Frio County operator,” the Tribune reports.
Paxton’s thugs raided the home of Lidia Martinez, an 87-year-old retired educator, in San Antonio last week. She is a lifelong volunteer with the civil rights group League of United Latin American Citizens, known as LULAC. Martinez told The New York Times that a little before 6 AM last Tuesday, nine officers—some of whom were armed—knocked on her door and forced their way into her home.
“I got scared,” she told the Times. “They told me, ‘We have a warrant to search your house.’ I said, ‘Why?’ I felt harassed.”
Martinez said the officers told her they were there because she had filled out a report saying that elderly voters were not receiving their absentee ballots. The officers searched her entire house—“my underwear, my nightgown, everything, they went through everything,” she said. And they took her phone, laptop, planner, and some documents. “They asked me about my entire life,” she said. … “I told them, ‘I haven’t committed any crimes.’”
"After two hours of questioning, they took me outside in front of all of my neighbors for half an hour while they searched the living room where I had been sitting.” Martinez said Monday at a press conference. “They continued to question me, asking about LULAC members. I said, 'What do you want from me? I am an old lady, all I do is help the seniors.'"
The odious Paxton will have spent $3.3 million on his various election fraud goose chases by the end of August—and he racked up those expenses prosecuting only six cases. The so-called investigation has been curtailed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, but Paxton won’t let it go, even though his only apparent goal is to harass and intimidate Latino organizers and voters.
That includes running with a debunked claim from Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that undocumented immigrants were registering to vote outside a state driver’s licensing office. The county’s Republican Party chair and election administrator both said there was no evidence to back up that claim, but Paxton says he’s opening an investigation anyway.
The whole claim that undocumented migrants are voting is a GOP myth—and their own research proves it. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a lawyer with the American Immigration Council, reviewed a database of proven cases of voter fraud compiled by The Heritage Foundation since the 1980s. In about four decades, Heritage documented just 10 cases of a noncitizen voting.
But that’s not going to stop Paxton: He will continue to harass and intimidate Latino voters. LULAC is requesting a federal investigation into the raids that Paxton’s force conducted on Castellano and her advisers.
“I feel like I’ve been violated,” Castellano told the Tribune. “This political tactic is because the Republicans are vying for this seat. They want full power of the House. And we are not going to give up. We are going to continue to work hard.”
But she conveyed a message for voters during a press conference Monday.
“Do not get distracted by this nonsense,” Castellano said. “Despite the challenges, I refuse to be silenced.”
And LULAC volunteer Martinez is shaken but committed.
“They wanted to intimidate me,” she said. “But this is important work.”
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the court that has blocked Attorney General Ken Paxton’s investigation. That court is the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, not the Texas Supreme Court.
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