‘I was shocked’: Elderly volunteer raided by Texas election integrity unit

( NewsNation ) — A Texas great-grandmother says she was subjected to a raid by state investigators, who questioned her for two hours about her volunteer work helping seniors and veterans vote by mail.

Lidia Martinez, a retired educator and American Legion commander, said Wednesday on NewsNation’s “ CUOMO ” that nine officers from the Texas Attorney General’s Office entered her home around 6 a.m. Aug. 20.

“They pushed the door, and nine officers from the department of the Attorney General rushed in and gave me a search warrant,” Martinez said. “Two of them went into my bedroom and started searching.”

Martinez said she was not allowed to change out of her nightgown and was not read her Miranda rights before being questioned about her voter registration activities.

“I told them, ‘I’m in my nightgown. Let me get dressed.’ They told me, ‘No,'” she told NewsNation.

The raid appears to be part of a broader investigation by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s election integrity unit.

The unit has targeted elderly, Latino Democratic volunteers and multiple Democratic politicians in what critics say is an attempt to intimidate Latino voters weeks before an election.

Martinez denied any wrongdoing, stating that her volunteer work involves explaining mail ballot applications to seniors and veterans who have difficulty leaving their homes to vote.

“I’m not guilty of any of that,” Martinez said. “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.”

Martinez is a longtime member of LULAC , the League of United Latin American Citizens, in San Antonio.

“We feel like our votes are being suppressed,” Roman Palomares, national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said Monday. “We’re going to get to the bottom of it.”

At least six members had their homes searched, Palomares said. They included Manuel Medina, a San Antonio political consultant, who claimed his home was searched for several hours while agents seized documents, computers and cellphones. Medina is the former head of the Bexar County Democratic Party and is working on the campaign of Democratic state House candidate Cecilia Castellano, whose home was also searched.

Paxton last week said his office has opened an investigation into reports that organizations operating in Texas may be unlawfully registering noncitizens to vote in violation of state and federal law.

He said investigators from the Texas Attorney General’s Election Integrity Unit recently conducted undercover operations to identify potential voter registration of non-citizens in Texas.

“Texans are deeply troubled by the possibility that organizations purporting to assist with voter registration are illegally registering noncitizens to vote in our elections,” Paxton said in a statement . “My office is investigating every credible report we receive regarding potential criminal activity that could compromise the integrity of our elections.”

Voter fraud is rare, typically occurs in isolated instances and is generally detected. An Associated Press investigation of the 2020 presidential election found fewer than 475 potential cases of voter fraud out of 25.5 million ballots cast in the six states where Trump and his allies disputed his loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.

NewsNation’s Border Report and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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