Texas GOP’s voter intimidation is what House GOP now wants to do nationwide

On August 20, a little before dawn, 87 year-old Lidia Martinez was abruptly jarred awake by an unexpected knock on her door. The longtime activist who for over 35 years has worked to expand voter registration among seniors and veterans in south Texas, cautiously peered out the door. Standing on her doorstep were nine police officers dressed in tactical gear and carrying firearms. After showing her a search warrant, Martinez’s home was searched as she was forced to stand outside in her nightgown in her driveway in full view of her neighbors. Martinez was later questioned for three hours after which the police seized her phone, computer, personal calendar and more.

Manuel Medina, the chair of Tejano Democrats, home was raided at about the same time by police in riot gear, who were armed and broke down his door. His home was then searched for seven hours after which police seized countless electronic devices and even family photos.

These were only a fraction of the people targeted in August by Texas’s GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton. Others included several members of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a state House candidate, a local area mayor and many associated with the nation's oldest Latino civil rights organization, LULAC. What they had in common was that all were Democrats and all were Latino.

These bad faith searches orchestrated by Paxton were predicated on the claim that the people being investigated were registering non-citizens to vote—despite zero evidence presented of wrongdoing. Very alarmingly, if Donald Trump and House GOP have their way, these types of raids would be happening nationwide with federal law enforcement under a GOP President.  That is why GOP House Speaker Johnson is now demanding the proposed SAVE Act be included in any deal to provide funding to keep the government open.

To be clear, federal and state law already makes it a crime for non-citizens to vote. But this new federal legislation would establish criminal penalties for registering an applicant to vote in a federal election who fails to present documentation proving U.S. citizenship.  That means that what we are seeing in Texas is coming attractions of what the GOP wants to do nationally.

Keep in mind despite Texas AG Paxton’s two year investigation, no charges  have been filed against any of the people whose homes were searched.  Indeed, there may never be charges because even Paxton’s basis for the search is BS. In his press release announcing the investigation, the Texas AG presents no evidence of wrongdoing. Instead, Paxton makes baseless claims like these organizations have set up voter registration booths outside state agencies where people could register inside. Paxton’s press release literally includes this question with no answer: “Why would they need a second opportunity to register with a booth outside?” But nowhere in his press release does he even allege any criminal conduct—only questions.

And Paxton—a close ally of convicted felon Trump—showed his bad faith earlier in August on a radio show when he peddled lies about non-citizens voting. Paxton declared, “There’s a reason Joe Biden brought people here illegally. I’m convinced that that’s how they’re going to do it this time, they’re going to use the illegal vote. Why were they brought in, why did he bring in 14 million people?” adding, “He brought them here to vote.”  

That is nothing more than the type of BS you hear on Fox News. But now Paxton has weaponized government by targeting people registering those he believes will vote for Democrats.

The backlash to Paxton’s actions have been swift. LULAC requested that the Department of  Justice investigate Paxton's office for Voting Rights Act violations. LULAC CEO Juan Proaño and the group's national president, Roman Palomares, summed up well what is really going in their letter to the DOJ: "These actions echo a troubling history of voter suppression and intimidation that has long targeted both Black and Latino communities, particularly in states like Texas, where demographic changes have increasingly shifted the political landscape.”

On Tuesday of this week, leaders of LULAC—together with several El Paso area organizations and political leaders--held a press conference slamming Paxton for his raids just two months before election day as “official oppression of primarily Latino and Black voters with the big lie of voter fraud.” El Paso County Commissioner Sergio Coronado stated, “These armed agents wanted to send a message of fear and intimidation to scare others from helping Latinos and other minorities in Texas to register to vote.” Coronado added, “We have seen this pattern before in Texas, where alleged voter fraud investigations are conveniently launched right before an election, only to disappear afterward or get thrown out of court. But by then, the damage is done.”

And Carl Dwyer, president of the NAACP El Paso branch defiantly stated at the press conference in response to Paxton’s actions, “We will not be intimidated. We will not be discouraged. We will not be stopped.”

During Jim Crow, the white right repeatedly utilized law enforcement to intimidate those seeking to register Black voters since they viewed that as a challenge to white supremacy.  That is exactly what Paxton is doing here.

It’s also the reason behind the proposed Trump backed SAVE act. As the Bipartisan Policy Center notes, “there is no evidence that attempts at voting by noncitizens have been significant enough to impact any election’s outcome.” The Brennan Center found 30 suspected cases of noncitizen voting out of 23.5 million votes across 42 jurisdictions in the 2016 election. And in 1996, Congress made it illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections.

But the lie that Democrats are registering non-citizens to vote is how Trump and other Republicans can animate their base and lie that the election was stolen when they lose. Jim Crow era laws may have ended but its racist spirit and playbook are alive and well in today’s GOP.

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