Government

TX AG Ken Paxton Is Beating Down Doors Of Little Old Abuelas For 'Election Integrity'

Who's gonna stop him?

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is the most lawless lawman in all the land. Having escaped impeachment, skated on securities fraud, and won reelection easily, he knows damn well that he can abuse his office at will without fear of consequences. And what he wants is to help Republicans get elected by harassing Hispanic candidates and voting rights activists.

Last week Paxton’s goons raided the home of Cecilia Castellano, the Democratic candidate for a hotly contested Texas House race in Uvalde. Castellano is running to replace Rep. Tracy King, whose seat might provide the margin for Republicans to pass a school voucher program that has long been the white whale for Gov. Greg Abbott. Paxton has endorsed Castellano’s opponent, Republican Don McLaughlin, Jr.

“This political tactic is because the Republicans are vying for this seat,” Castellano told the Texas Tribune. “They want full power of the House. And we are not going to give up. We are going to continue to work hard.”

“In 2022, the Election Integrity Unit received a referral from the 81st Judicial District Attorney Audrey Louis regarding allegations of election fraud and vote harvesting that occurred during the 2022 elections,” Paxton said in a press release announcing the raid on Castellano and several of her campaign aides. “The subsequent two-year investigation provided sufficient evidence to obtain the search warrants in furtherance of the ongoing investigation.”

Paxton says that he’s uncovered a ballot “trafficking” scheme, and reporting by the Texas Tribune suggests that the allegations center around a woman who has worked for decades to do voter outreach in Frio County. The unnamed woman was allegedly paid by Castellano’s aide Manuel Medina to mobilize mail-in ballots. Medina chairs Tejano Democrats, the largest Hispanic Democratic organization in Texas, and his home was also raided by armed agents, who searched the premises for 7 hours and confiscated dozens of phones and computers. A judge in Bexar County later enjoined the AG from further examining the documents pending a hearing on September 12.

“I’ve been on campaigns for 30 years and never in my life could I have ever imagined anything that I do that would merit them breaking down my door and pointing six assault semi-automatic weapons in my face,” he told the Tribune.

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Among Paxton’s targets was Lidia Martinez, an 87-year-old woman who opened the door just before 6 a.m. on Tuesday to discover nine police officers with a warrant looking for voter registration cards. Martinez is a member of the League of United Latin American Citizens, AKA LULAC, a powerful Latino civil rights group that skews liberal and regularly sues the state of Texas.

The New York Times reports:

Ms. Martinez said that the officers told her they came because she had filled out a report saying that older residents were not getting mail ballots. “Yes, I did,” she told them. For 35 years, Ms. Martinez has been a member of LULAC, the civil rights group, helping Latino residents stay engaged in politics. Much of her work has included instructing older residents and veterans on how to fill out voter registration cards.

What are the odds that little old ladies who have been doing GOTV in Texas since Ken Paxton was in law school and are well aware that he’d happily lock them up for any stray mark on a ballot have been cooking up a massive, illegal vote harvesting scheme?

And if they are doing something stupid, like leaving signatures off ballots or offering to mail in votes for their neighbors, what are the odds that Paxton will lock these grannies up pending trial for the supposed safety of the community?

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LULAC says it intends to request that the DOJ investigate Paxton for intimidation and vote suppression. But don’t worry, kids, this isn’t election interference. Election interference is sentencing a billionaire for paying off a pornstar to win an election and hiding the reimbursement by creating false invoices to his lawyer.

Warrants detail allegations that led to search of Democratic candidate for Texas House [TX Tribune]
Latino Civil Rights Group Demands Inquiry Into Texas Voter Fraud Raids [NYT]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.

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