Women in pajamas to hold voter registration rally Sunday in San Antonio

McALLEN, Texas ( Border Report ) — Women in San Antonio are encouraged to wear pajamas and take part in a “Power of Pajamas” voter registration rally on Sunday as a call to action against recent home searches in South Texas.

The event is hosted by LULAC — the League of United Latin American Citizens — the nation’s largest and oldest Hispanic civil rights organization. And it comes after several pre-dawn raids were conducted by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office last month on homes and businesses in South Texas in what the agency says is an investigation into voter registration fraud.

One of the women whose home was searched on Aug. 20 is Lidia Martinez, an 87-year-old great-grandmother who has volunteered for years helping pass voter information to senior citizens. She says officials kept her standing outside her San Antonio home for over 30 minutes while just wearing a nightgown.

“This has been terrible. I’m not guilty of any of that. I’m an old woman,” Martinez recently told NewsNation . “All I do is take them the application to vote by mail and I explain to them. They can write. And I explain to them exactly how to fill them out. It’s a little confusing. And I go through it and I explain the application and I leave it there. And it is entirely their responsibility to put a stamp on it and mail it. I never see the ballot again.”

“I give them to the seniors and they asked me if I had gone back for them and I said, ‘No, I leave them to mail them out,'” Martinez told Border Report.

The voter registration cards don’t require stamps but the vote by mail does and Martinez told Border Report “I don’t provide that.”

Several Democratic Texas lawmakers last week asked the Justice Department to investigate the recent searches, calling them “raids.” They alleged they were driven by the Republican-led state administration and “intended to intimidate American citizens, in particular Latinos and members of minority communities, from exercising their right to vote through political persecution or deny them that right altogether.”

On Friday, Paxton issued an advisory explaining the legal limitations and potential issues regarding unsolicited voter registration applications mailed in Texas. He says it is a response to mass mailouts of unsolicited voter registration forms, including some he says are pre-filled out.

“There is no issue more important to our political system than election security,” Paxton said. “Receiving a voter registration application does not necessarily mean you are eligible to vote. If you are ineligible and attempt to register anyway, you are committing a crime.”

Paxton’s office says it is illegal in Texas for local governments to enter into contracts with third-party vendors to mail out unsolicited voter registration forms.

Paxton’s office has opened a tip line to report voter fraud at illegalvoting@oag.texas.gov .

LULAC says Sunday’s event is a battle cry for justice.

“This event is to call attention to the suppression efforts of the Latino vote in Texas by Attorney General Ken Paxton. We are igniting the vote every day. People are seeing what Paxton is doing to Latinas. By our example, we hope that every woman who sees us in our pajamas on the streets of San Antonio is empowered. They need to be proactive in their communities and their families in registering and getting out the Latino vote. Our civil rights are at stake,” Elisa Tamez-Rosales, LULAC District 15 director, told Border Report on Friday.

Martinez is scheduled to speak at Sunday’s event.

The event will be held at 10 a.m. CDT on the steps of San Antonio’s City Hall, at 100 Plaza de Armas in San Antonio.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.

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