With guns drawn, Texas deputies terrorize 87-year-old Latina voter registration activist

Lydia Martinez, a volunteer and great-grandmother whose home was searched, center, speaks at a news conference where she and officials with the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, responded to allegations by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Mon., Aug. 26, 2024, in San Antonio. | Eric Gay/AP

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Lidia Martinez was startled by a loud knock on her door at 6 a.m. When Martinez, 87, opened the door in her nightgown, nine of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s deputies confronted her. With guns drawn, bearing riot shields, and brandishing a search warrant, the officers barged in.

For several hours on Aug. 20, they ransacked Martinez’s San Antonio home, forced her to stand outside in her nightgown, and eventually confiscated her cell phone, computer, calendar, and license to conduct voter registration.

Officers carried out similar search warrants across three counties, raiding the homes of Texas House of Representatives candidate Cecilia Castellano, chair of Tejano Democrats Manuel Medina, two other LULAC voter registration activists and abuelitas (grandmothers), Imelda Rodriguez and Marianne Obregon, and a mayor.

When Martinez asked why they were searching her house, officers responded that Martinez, a national board member of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), had filed a complaint that senior citizens weren’t receiving their absentee ballots. The search warrant sought information about “vote harvesting” and “identity fraud.”

Outraged leaders and activists in the Mexican American community called the raids “nonsense’ and a “terroristic hit job.” “This is point-blank voter intimidation, and LULAC will fight for the right of every Latino to exercise the right to vote,” said Roman Palomares, LULAC’s national president.

The LULAC Political Action Committee endorsed Kamala Harris, its first presidential endorsement ever. Days later, Paxton’s office raided LULAC activists.

LULAC, the NAACP, and other civil rights organizations, along with state Democratic lawmakers, called on the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the raids and other violations of civil and voting rights by the Texas state authorities.

Texas has a long, sordid history of voter suppression deeply intertwined with white supremacy. After the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act and ended Justice Department pre-clearance of changes in voting laws in 2013, Texas went on a voter suppression binge primarily targeting Latinos and African Americans.

LULAC, working in coalition with the NAACP and other organizations, has been fighting for voting rights for decades and says it will not stop registering people to vote and getting them to the polls.

“It’s rumored I’m on that list, said Gabriel Rosales, LULAC Texas state director. “Well, you can come get me. We’re going to fight back. We’re going to stand up. We’re going to get our people to the polls.”

In addition, Texas authorities have purged 1.1 million voters from the rolls since the passage of SB-1 in 2021, a wide-ranging voter suppression law. The extreme-right Republican legislature adopted the bill in the wake of big voter turnouts in 2018 and 2020. Authorities purged many registrations less than 90 days before the Nov. 5 election, which violates the National Voter Registration Act.

Closed campus voting locations

The state board of elections closed campus voting locations, and the state legislature imposed strict voter ID and registration laws.

Paxton has a history of ordering raids on the pretext of voter fraud. Authorities have brought over 900 charges, resulting in only three convictions, including one thrown out by the courts. Paxton launches “voter fraud” raids and investigations right before elections, only to end them silently afterward.

He also launched an investigation of voter registration groups after a false report was aired on Fox News that undocumented migrants were registering to vote in a north Texas county, even after local Republican officials said there was nothing to the report.

The most recent raids are part of a two-year “voter fraud” investigation by Paxton’s “Election Integrity Unit” established in the wake of repeated lies by Donald Trump that Democrats rigged the 2020 election and undocumented immigrants are voting.

“There’s a reason Joe Biden brought people here illegally,” Paxton said on a radio show. “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? He brought them here to vote.” His figures are totally outrageous and wrong.

A coalition of right-wing groups led by True the Vote is also challenging the registrations of tens of thousands of voters. The group is using an online tool to match voter data with change-of-address information to prove ineligibility. Moving from one house or apartment to another should never cause one to lose the right to vote.

Paxton’s reign of terror is a critical part of Texas Republicans’ autocratic control to maintain its 30-year grip on power and advance some of the most extreme MAGA policies, essentially carrying out Project 2025 on a state level.

Texas Republicans recognize the dire threat to their rule in the face of changing demographics and growing opposition to its agenda. Latinos comprise 39.8 percent of Texas’s 30.5 million residents, the largest of any group. Fifty-eight percent of residents are Latino, African American, and Asian. LULAC and its allies say Paxton is carrying out the searches and harassment to terrorize these groups from registering and voting in the 2024 elections.

Latino voters account for half of all new voters since 2020. Fifty percent of those turning 18 years old are Latino, and about 2.4 million eligible Latinos are unregistered. It’s easy to see why the work of LULAC and other organizations is so threatening.

Incumbent Republican Ted Cruz and his Democratic challenger, Rep. Colin Allred, are locked in a tight race for the U.S. Senate. The race has heated up since July 21, when Kamala Harris became the Democratic Party presidential nominee. Democratic voter intensity has exploded, with massive crowds greeting Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, hundreds of millions of dollars in small donations, and 400,000 signing up to volunteer.

Another sign of the “massive” Democratic voter enthusiasm gap is new voter registrations, including in Texas. According to Target Smart, which tracks registration and voting data, Democratic registration is 20 percent higher than that of Republicans in 38 states where data is available, post July 21 in 2024 compared to the same period in 2020. According to TargetSmart director Tom Bonier, a two or three percent swing is a big deal.

Compared to the same period in 2020, GOP new registration dropped by 34% and new Democratic registration increased by 32%. Young African American women are registering an astonishing 175% higher, young Latinas at 150% higher, women overall 84% higher, African Americans overall 84% higher, and Latinos overall 68% higher.

In Texas “In 2020 during the 15th week out from election day, the modeled partisanship of new registrants was +16 GOP. During the same week this year they were +10 Dem,” wrote Bonier, which included a significant jump in Latino registration.

“That knock on the door is enough to create fear in our community,” said El Paso County Commissioner Sergio Coronado. “That fear is designed to do one thing – suppress our vote. But we will not be intimidated.”

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CONTRIBUTOR

John Bachtell

John Bachtell is president of Long View Publishing Co., the publisher of People's World. He is active in electoral, labor, environmental, and social justice struggles. He grew up in Ohio, where he attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs. He currently lives in Chicago.