World Courant
AUSTIN, Texas — A Latino voting rights group known as Monday for a federal investigation after its volunteers stated Texas authorities raided their properties and seized telephones and computer systems as a part of an investigation by the state’s Republican lawyer normal into allegations of voter fraud.
No prices have been filed in opposition to any targets of the searches that befell final week within the San Antonio space. Lawyer Normal Ken Paxton beforehand confirmed his workplace had performed searches after an area prosecutor referred to his workplace “allegations of election fraud and vote harvesting” in the course of the 2022 election.
Some volunteers whose properties have been searched, together with an 80-year-old girl who instructed her associates that brokers have been at her home for 2 hours and took medication, alongside along with her smartphone and watch, railed exterior an lawyer normal’s workplace in San Antonio in opposition to the searches.
“We really feel like our votes are being suppressed,” Roman Palomares, nationwide president of the League of United Latin American Residents, stated Monday. “We’re going to resolve it.”
The investigation is a part of an Election Integrity Unit that Paxton shaped in his workplace. Paxton’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to emails searching for remark. The federal Justice Division declined to remark.
Not less than six members had their properties searched, Palomares stated. They included Manuel Medina, a San Antonio political marketing consultant, who claimed his house was looked for a number of hours whereas brokers seized paperwork, computer systems and cellphones. Medina is the previous head of the Bexar County Democratic Occasion and is engaged on the marketing campaign of Democratic state Home candidate Cecilia Castellano, whose house was additionally searched.
9 officers additionally entered the house of volunteer Lidia Martinez, 80, who stated she expressed confusion about why they have been there.
“They sat me down and so they began looking all my home, my retailer room, my storage, kitchen, every part,” Martinez stated, and interrogated her about different members, together with Medina.
The search warrant ordered officers to look any paperwork associated to the election and to confiscate Martinez’s units.
“I’m not doing something unlawful,” Martinez stated she instructed brokers. “All I do is assist the seniors.”
Voter fraud is uncommon, usually happens in remoted situations and is mostly detected. An Related Press investigation of the 2020 presidential election discovered fewer than 475 potential instances of voter fraud out of 25.5 million ballots forged within the six states the place Trump and his allies disputed his loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.
