There will be plenty to find if they look.
Still a crook any way you look
Several Democratic Texas lawmakers are asking the Justice Department to investigate recent “raids” of South Texas homes and businesses by Republican Texas’ Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office in its efforts to eradicate voter fraud.
Eleven Democratic representatives, including two from the border, on Friday sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the Justice Department to investigate a series of recent searches by Paxton’s office on several homes and businesses in South Texas, which they call “raids.”
“We write to you with urgent concerns over recent actions undertaken at the direction of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to raid the homes of activists, volunteers, and political operatives in South Texas and the San Antonio area and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to remove thousands of individuals from voter rolls with little transparency. We are concerned that these actions are intended to intimidate American citizens, in particular Latinos and members of minority communities, from exercising their right to vote through political persecution or deny them that right altogether. We request that the Department investigate these actions,” the letter says.
[…]
Paxton last week issued a legal advisory and opened a tip line where the public may report suspected violations of the Texas Election Code. Reports can be emailed to illegalvoting@oag.texas.gov.
Lawmakers, however, say the raids on South Texas voters included a grandmother who was forced to wait outside her home in just a nightgown. Her story has garnered support from Latino organizations, including the nation’s largest and oldest Hispanic civil rights organization League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), which was founded by César Chávez.
Border Report spoke with Lidia Martinez, 80, who said her San Antonio home was raided on Aug. 20 by nine agents from Paxton’s office who took her cellphone, appointment book and laptop.
“I’ve very angry and I’m scared,” Martinez told Border Report. “They questioned me for three hours. They came in and there were seven men and two women and they came in and searched all my house. Every single thing in there. And I asked them if I could change my clothes, and they told me ‘no,’” Martinez said.
LULAC has also asked the justice Department to investigate the incidents.
“It is disgraceful and outrageous that the state of Texas, and its highest-ranking law enforcement officer, is once again using the power of his office to instill fear in the hearts of community members who volunteer their time to promote civic engagement,” LULAC’s Texas State Director Gabriel Rosales said after the searches.
“I have been contacted by elderly residents who are confused and frightened, wondering why they have been singled out. Attorney General Paxton’s actions clearly aim to suppress the Latino vote through intimidation and any means necessary to tilt the electoral process in favor of his political allies,” Rosales said.
See here, here, and here for some background. Every Texas DEm except Henry Cuellar signed the letter. I have no idea if the DOJ is inclined to follow up on these things or if this is mostly for show. I would like for it to be the former, but as I’ve said before I don’t really know what can be done to actually enforce some limits on Ken Paxton. He’s not interested in following federal law, and he’s got plenty of buddies in the judiciary who have his back. This is a serious problem, not limited to Texas, and it’s not going away. Maybe if that grand jury returns some indictments it could put a crimp in his step, but it’s not a fix for the underlying problems. Stronger federal action (which I again recognize could be a double-edged sword) and winning some more elections here are the real answers. We can get started on the first half of that now. The Current has more.