Texas Lawyer Common Ken Paxton has ramped up efforts to make sure the integrity of the state’s elections, launching a complete investigation into allegations that nonprofit organizations are unlawfully registering noncitizens to vote.
This push goals to protect the sanctity of the electoral course of and stop any potential unlawful affect on native, state, and nationwide elections.
Investigators from the Texas Lawyer Common’s Election Integrity Unit have been conducting undercover operations to determine and crack down on voter registration actions which will contain noncitizens.
This is similar unit that, in June 2021, arrested Monica Mendez in Victoria County on a number of counts of election fraud. Mendez was charged with 7 counts of Unlawful Voting, 8 counts of Unlawfully Aiding a Voter Voting by Mail, 8 counts of Illegal Possession of a Poll, and eight counts of Election Fraud.
Early findings from these latest operations have revealed that varied nonprofit organizations have been establishing cubicles outdoors Texas Division of Public Security (DPS) Driver License places of work, providing voter registration help.
These cubicles are allegedly focusing on non-citizens and unlawful aliens who is probably not eligible to vote.
In an announcement on Wednesday, Lawyer Common Paxton expressed deep concern over these findings.
“Texans are deeply troubled by the chance that organizations purporting to help with voter registration are illegally registering noncitizens to vote in our elections. If eligible residents can legally register to vote when conducting their enterprise at a DPS workplace, why would they want a second alternative to register with a sales space outdoors?”
He added, “My workplace is investigating each credible report we obtain relating to potential legal exercise that might compromise the integrity of our elections. The Biden-Harris Administration has deliberately flooded our nation with unlawful aliens, and with out correct safeguards, overseas nationals can illegally affect elections on the native, state, and nationwide degree. It’s a crime to vote—or to register to vote—in case you are not a United States Citizen. Any wrongdoing can be punished to the fullest extent of the regulation.”
On August 20, Paxton’s workplace carried out raids on the properties of a number of outstanding Democrats in South Texas as a part of this ongoing election integrity investigation.
The targets included Manuel Medina, chair of the Tejano Democrats, a number of members of the League of United Latin American Residents (LULAC), a state Home candidate, and a neighborhood mayor, in keeping with NBC Information.
The information outlet reported:
A duplicate of a wide-ranging search warrant left with one of many folks focused, LULAC volunteer Lidia Martinez, 87, of San Antonio, supplied a window into the investigation’s pursuits. The warrant ordered the seizure of all digital units at her residence, allowed for the opening of paperwork that have been business-, organization- or election-related, and approved swabbing for DNA. In keeping with the warrant, the aim of the search was to search for proof of violations of the Texas election legal guidelines relating to vote harvesting and identification fraud.
Medina’s residence was additionally “forcibly entered” within the early morning of Aug. 20. In keeping with a submitting from his lawyer, officers wakened Medina, his spouse and two younger daughters, and “rummaged via the residence” for seven hours, the lawyer mentioned, looking via the residing areas, closets, kitchen, bogs, storage and the household’s bedrooms. Officers seized 65 cellphones and 41 computer systems and storage units, the submitting mentioned.
Two Democratic consultants who weren’t educated about Medina’s enterprise or the investigation mentioned somebody working an election telephone banking or canvassing operation can have a number of telephones and computer systems for volunteers and employees.
Medina’s lawyer was granted his request for an injunction to dam the lawyer basic or another state officers from reviewing the paperwork or disseminating them. A listening to on the search and seizures was set for Sept. 12.
On Monday, LULAC leaders, state legislators, Latino activists, and supporters gathered to protest outdoors the San Antonio workplace of Lawyer Common Paxton.
LULAC has since requested that the Justice Division examine Paxton’s workplace for potential Voting Rights Act violations, accusing the workplace of conducting unlawful searches beneath the guise of voter fraud investigations, in keeping with CBS Information.
