Latino civil rights activists step up voter registration after Texas AG Paxton raids
The raids on the homes of members of the nation's oldest Latino civil rights group as part of an election investigation by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton "lit a fire" among some Texas Hispanics, a LULAC leader says.
SAN ANTONIO — In the three weeks since Texas’ attorney general executed raids at the homes of several Latino election activists, the state’s oldest civil rights organization has been marshaling members to step up voter registration for what they say is a stand against voter suppression.
Local chapters of the League of United Latin American Citizens, LULAC, have been calling on volunteers to get certified so they can register Texas Latinos and other voters. Next week, LULAC’s national office plans to launch a get-out-the-vote drive, leveraging its 535 local councils in 33 states.
“Our members have gone from shock to anger to resolve and are doubling their commitment to register voters and get them to polls,” LULAC CEO Juan Proaño told NBC News.
Paxton ordered the raids with armed officers on Aug. 20 in what his office and a South Texas district attorney’s office have said is an ongoing investigation of vote fraud through illegal collection and handling of applications for mail ballots and the ballots themselves.
No charges have been filed and no indictments have been issued in the two-year-old investigation, which began when a Democrat in Frio County complained to the county's district attorney about “ballot harvesting” after she lost her 2022 primary, according to an affidavit for a search warrant signed in March.
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