The League of United Latin American Citizens is requesting a federal investigation after it said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton conducted raids of its volunteers’ homes this week, looking for evidence of possible vote harvesting.
Paxton on Wednesday announced that his office executed multiple search warrants in Frio, Atascosa and Bexar Counties as part of an “ongoing election integrity investigation” into allegations of election fraud and vote harvesting that occurred during the 2022 elections. He said a two-year investigation “provided sufficient evidence to obtain the search warrants.”
Gabriel Rosales, Texas LULAC state director, said he received “alarming reports from terrified elderly citizens” in the South Texas town of Dilley whose homes were raided. Rosales said in one instance, the front door of a home was forcibly broken into by agents. Some of them had their computers and cellphones confiscated, he said.
“What little that they’re saying is that we, apparently, any one of our operatives that are out there in the community registering voters, that we have voter information that we shouldn’t,” Rosales said in an interview. “Our response is the only voter data that we have, you can purchase at the county courthouse. So I don’t know what they’re doing. It’s just pure voter intimidation.”
Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Attorney General Ken Paxton said his office is investigating reports that unnamed organizations may be illegally registering noncitizens to vote outside driver’s license offices — an announcement that drew skeptical responses from Democrats and the ACLU of Texas.
Paxton announced the investigation Wednesday, saying undercover operations had begun, and will continue, into the reports of illegal activity.
The vaguely worded announcement mentioned nothing about what undercover investigators found beyond noting the agency’s Election Integrity Unit confirmed “various nonprofit organizations” were operating booths outside of Department of Public Safety driver’s license offices to offer help registering to vote.
Such offers appeared suspicious to Paxton and his agency, which noted “all citizens” already have an opportunity to register to vote when they renew or get a state ID card or driver’s license.
“If you don’t have the ability to register inside a DPS office, it’s because you’re not supposed to register to vote because you’re not legal,” Paxton told Newsmax’s Chris Salcedo on Wednesday. “So why would these organizations be on DPS property registering people to vote unless they’re registering people that are here illegally? Doesn’t make sense.”
Spokespeople for Paxton did not respond to three emails seeking information about the undercover investigations and when they began. A follow-up voicemail and three more emails seeking clarity on what prompted the investigation and what it’s found so far also went unreturned.
The root of the probe appears to be a weekend post of unverified secondhand information shared by Fox Business Network anchor Maria Bartiromo. Relaying a message from a friend, Bartiromo’s post on X said a mother and her 16-year-old son visited three Department of Motor Vehicle sites in North Texas in search of shorter lines.