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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing a nonprofit group dedicated to increasing Latino participation in civic engagement, accusing them of registering illegal immigrants to vote.
In court documents, Paxton’s office said the Jolt Initiative “systematically subverted the election process and violated Texas election law by recruiting, training, and directing individuals to submit false or otherwise illegal voter registration applications.”
“The left is constantly trying to cheat and rig elections because they know they cannot win honestly. Any organization attempting to register illegal immigrants, all of whom are criminals, must be completely crushed and shut down immediately,” Paxton said in a statement. “JOLT is a radical, partisan operation that has attempted and continues to knowingly attempt to corrupt our voter rolls and weaken the voices of legal Texas voters. I will ensure they face the full force of the law.”
TEXAS AG LAUNCHES UNDERCOVER OPERATIONS TO INFILTRATE “LEFT-WING TERROR CELLS” ACROSS THE STATE
FILE – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks outside the Supreme Court building in Washington, June 9, 2016. (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)
The lawsuit asks a court to dissolve Jolt’s charter and revoke its ability to do business in Texas.
In response, Jolt sued Paxton and filed a motion for a preliminary injunction against him, accusing their attorney general of engaging in a retaliatory campaign to revoke the organization’s corporate charter.
The group said Paxton’s lawsuit was “direct retaliation against Jolt’s protected First Amendment activities, including his voter registration drives and his previous federal lawsuit challenging an intrusive request for records from the attorney general’s office.”
“Let it be on record that the Texas Attorney General is using the power of his office to silence Latino voters,” said Jackie Bastard, executive director of Jolt. “After we challenged his first unconstitutional attempt to intimidate us, he escalated his attack by moving directly to the corporate ‘death penalty,’ seeking to revoke our ability to exist. The state’s quo warranto petition is explicitly retaliatory, citing our voter registration activity and prior lawsuit as the reason for filing it.”
TEXAS GOP SEEKS TO “DOMESTICATE” DEMS WANTS TO BREAK QUORUM WITH NATIONWIDE CIVIL ARREST WARRANTS
Voters line up to cast their ballots inside Calvary Baptist Church on March 1, 2016 in Rosenberg, Texas. (Getty Images 2015)
Paxton said an investigation by his office found that JOLT members were stationed outside Texas Department of Motor Vehicles locations, where they provided instructions that directly violated provisions of the Texas Election Code.
JOLT and its volunteer Deputy Registrars allegedly coordinated the scheme to recruit and solicit individuals to submit illegal voter registration applications, which may be designed to register illegal aliens lacking proper identification.
In the lawsuit, Paxton’s office said Jolt did not attempt to verify whether a voter registration applicant was eligible to vote and induced people to submit false statements in their voter registration applications.
Jolt said the lawsuit was part of a campaign by Paxton to suppress the vote of young Latinos in Texas.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (L) has opened an investigation into 33 potential non-citizens who may have voted in the 2024 general election. (Justin Lane/Reuters and AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, file)
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“We refuse to be intimidated. We are asking the Federal Court to intervene immediately to protect our First Amendment rights to speak, associate and petition the government and to ensure we can continue our vital work of civic engagement,” said Maria Tolentino, director of programs at Jolt.
Paxton’s office last year launched an investigation into Jolt and other groups for similar allegations. Paxton demanded documents and information from Jolt, who sued the state for fear of putting its workers and volunteers in danger.
In October, a review of Texas elections identified thousands of illegal immigrants on the state’s voter rolls, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson said. Nelson said a cross-check of state voting records found that more than 2,700 potential illegal immigrants were registered to vote, leading to a review of eligibility in all 254 counties.
