Emboldened by Republicans’ nearly unchallenged rule in the state, Texas’s Republican funhouse mirror Attorney General Ken Paxton launched a series of police raids on leaders of a leading Latino voting rights organization in the state, claiming he was looking of evidence of voter registration fraud, NBC News reports.
The raids targeted the chair of the Tejano Democrats, several members of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), a state House candidate, and a local area mayor. All those targeted are US citizens of Mexican descent.
One warrant targeted 87-year-old LULAC volunteer Lidia Martinez allowing police to seize all electronic devices at her home, to open documents that were business-, organization- or election-related, and to swab for DNA. According to the warrant, the alleged crimes were evidence of violations of the Texas election laws regarding vote harvesting and identity fraud.