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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 Jolt Initiative is “systematically subverting the election process and violating Texas election law by recruiting, training, and directing individuals to submit false, or otherwise unlawful, voter registration applications.”
“The left constantly tries to cheat and rig elections because they know they can’t win honestly. Any organization attempting to register illegals, who are all criminals, must be completely crushed and shut down immediately,”Paxton said in a statement. “JOLT is a radical, partisan operation that has, and continues to, knowingly attempt to corrupt our voter rolls and weaken the voice of lawful Texas voters. I will make sure they face the full force of the law.”
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The lawsuit asks a court to dissolve Jolt’s charter and revoke its ability to do business in Texas.
In response, Jolt has sued Paxton and filed a motion for a preliminary injunction against him, accusing their attorney general of engaging in a retaliatory campaign aimed at revoking the organization’s corporate charter.
The group said Paxton’s lawsuit is “direct retaliation for Jolt’s protected First Amendment activities, including its voter registration drives and its previous federal lawsuit challenging an intrusive document demand from the Attorney General’s office.”
“Let the record show that the Texas Attorney General is using the power of his office to silence Latino voters,” said Jackie Bastard, Jolt’s executive director. “After we challenged his first unconstitutional attempt to intimidate us, he escalated his attack by moving straight 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 a reason for its filing.”
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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 unlawful voter registration applications, which could be designed to register illegal aliens who lack proper identification.
In the lawsuit, Paxton’s office said Jolt does not attempt to verify if a voter registration applicant is eligible to vote and has induced people to submit false statements in their voter registration applications.
Jolt said the lawsuit is part of a campaign by Paxton to suppress the vote of young Latinos in Texas.
“We refuse to be bullied. We are asking the federal court to intervene immediately to protect our First Amendment right 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 launched an investigation last year into Jolt and other groups over similar claims. Paxton demanded documents and information from Jolt, which sued the state over concerns about placing its workers and volunteers in harms way.
In October, a Texas election review 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 voter records found that more than 2,700 possible illegal immigrants were registered on the voter rolls, leading to an eligibility review across the 254 counties.
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