CBS EVENING NEWS
8/27/24
6:40 PM
NORAH O’DONNELL: And there is an election uproar growing in Texas with a voting rights organization calling for a federal investigation. The League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, is accusing the state's Republican attorney general of voter intimidation after authorities raided the homes of its volunteers over allegations of voter fraud. CBS's Omar Villafranca spoke with some of those whose homes were searched.
LIDIA MARTINEZ: They scared the hell out of me.
OMAR VILLAFRANCA: 87-year-old Lidia Martinez, who is LULAC’s longest serving volunteer, had her home raided as part of a fraud investigation by the Texas attorney general.
MARTINEZ: We live in the United States of America, you’re acting like Gestapos, this is not Russia.
VILLAFRANCA: They searched this room?
MARTINEZ: Everything.
VILLAFRANCA: Martinez says up to eight officers showed up at her home last Tuesday morning. They took her phone, her laptop, questioned her for hours, and made her wait outside.
MARTINEZ: I said, let me get dressed and they said, “No. go outside”.
VILLAFRANCA: What were you wearing?
MARTINEZ: My nightgown. And I had all of these policemen around me. It was embarrassing, humiliating. I was so angry. It was horrible.
VILLAFRANCA: The raid comes after state Attorney General Ken Paxton recently announced an investigation into allegations of election fraud and vote harvesting, which began in 2022. The Attorney General's office said it had found enough evidence to obtain search warrants, which they executed last Tuesday across three different counties. LULAC's president says this is voter suppression.
ROMAN PALOMARES: It is evident, through his patterns of lawsuits, raids, searches, and seizures, that he is trying to keep Latinos from voting.
VILLAFRANCA: Now the organization is asking the Justice Department to investigate Paxton. In a letter first obtained by CBS News, they called his actions, quote: "a serious violation of the civil rights of Latino citizens. Cecilia Castellano is running for a hotly contested state house seat and says officers executed a search warrant at her home.
CECILIA CASTELLANO: I believe that this is plain old politics that the Republicans are just trying to suppress the voice of the Latino community, trying to suppress me. That's not going to happen.
VILLAFRACA: We reached out to Paxton for comment but did not hear back. Now, a ProPublica report found that between January 2020 and September of 2022, Paxton's office opened up at least 390 cases for potential election crimes, but of those cases, only five led to conviction. Norah.
O’DONNELL: Omar Villafranca with that new reporting today. Thank you.