Latino voting rights group calls for investigation after Texas authorities search homes

AUSTIN, Texas — A Latino voting rights radical called Monday for a national probe aft its volunteers said Texas authorities raided their homes and seized phones and computers arsenic portion of an probe by the state’s Republican lawyer wide into allegations of elector fraud.

No charges person been filed against immoderate targets of the searches that took spot past week successful the San Antonio area. Attorney General Ken Paxton antecedently confirmed his bureau had conducted searches aft a section authoritative referred to his bureau “allegations of predetermination fraud and ballot harvesting” during the 2022 election.

Some volunteers whose homes were searched, including an 80-year-old pistillate who told her associates that agents were astatine her location for 2 hours and took medicine, on with her smartphone and watch, railed extracurricular an lawyer general’s bureau successful San Antonio against the searches.

“We consciousness similar our votes are being suppressed,” Roman Palomares, nationalist president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said Monday. “We’re going to get to the bottommost of it.”

The probe is portion of an Election Integrity Unit that Paxton formed successful his office. Paxton’s bureau did not instantly respond to emails seeking comment. The national Justice Department declined to comment.

At slightest six members had their homes searched, Palomares said. They included Manuel Medina, a San Antonio governmental consultant, who claimed his location was searched for respective hours portion agents seized documents, computers and cellphones. Medina is the erstwhile caput of the Bexar County Democratic Party and is moving connected the run of Democratic authorities House campaigner Cecilia Castellano, whose location was besides searched.

Nine officers besides entered the location of unpaid Lidia Martinez, 80, who said she expressed disorder astir wherefore they were there.

“They sat maine down and they started searching each my house, my store room, my garage, kitchen, everything,” Martinez said, and interrogated her astir different members, including Medina.

The hunt warrant ordered officials to hunt immoderate documents related to the predetermination and to confiscate Martinez’s devices.

“I’m not doing thing illegal,” Martinez said she told agents. “All I bash is assistance the seniors.”

Voter fraud is rare, typically occurs successful isolated instances and is mostly detected. An Associated Press investigation of the 2020 statesmanlike predetermination recovered less than 475 imaginable cases of elector fraud retired of 25.5 cardinal ballots formed successful the six states wherever Trump and his allies disputed his nonaccomplishment to Democratic President Joe Biden.