A half-dozen people, including a county judge, two City Council members and a former county election administrator, were indicted in Texas on Wednesday for “vote harvesting” and tampering with evidence, elevating Attorney General Ken Paxton’s charges of voter fraud by mostly Latino Democrats to a criminal level.
The charges surprised Latino voting rights activists, who had insisted that a series of law enforcement raids on political operatives and voting organizers, some who were in their 70s and 80s, appeared to have been political. The raids last August by Mr. Paxton’s office were part of a sprawling voter fraud inquiry in Latino enclaves near San Antonio and in South Texas, conducted by Mr. Paxton’s “election integrity unit.”
At the time, the League of United Latin American Citizens, one of the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights organizations, said that officers conducting the raids took cellphones, computers and documents. An 87-year-old retired educator described heavily armed officers barging into her home and taking personal items.
LULAC leaders accused the famously conservative attorney general of trying to suppress Latino voters and asked the Justice Department to investigate the raids.
Now, five people, all with ties to Democratic candidates, are accused of illegal vote harvesting, which usually involves knocking on doors and asking if volunteers can deliver completed absentee or mail-in ballots to voting centers or ballot drop boxes.
In 2021, Gov. Greg Abbott signed an overhaul of Texas election laws which included new restrictions on vote harvesting, making it illegal to deliver a ballot for a third party. Many activists fear that the exchange of money, such as money for gas, to help deliver a ballot or cast a vote could also be considered illegal. Wednesday’s indictment accused officials of using CashApp to pay one person to engage another to collect ballots.
It was unclear if other arrests were pending.
“I think this is all part of voter suppression,” said Lidia Martinez, who was 87 last year when nine officers, some with guns, raided her home in San Antonio. She was not among the indicted.
Officials with LULAC said on Wednesday that they needed to study the indictments before commenting for this article.
The investigation stemmed from a referral from Audrey Gossett Louis, a Republican district attorney from the 81st Judicial District, which includes Atascosa and Frio Counties, where Mr. Paxton’s office conducted some of the raids.
Mr. Paxton’s election integrity unit was created after Donald J. Trump made false claims of fraud in the wake of the 2020 election, and Republican-led states sought to crack down on supposed voter crime. Experts have found that voter fraud remains rare.
According to a statement by Mr. Paxton’s office, a grand jury returned indictments against Rochelle Camacho, a county judge in Frio County; Carlos Segura, a former elections administrator for Frio; Ramiro Trevino and Racheal Garza, council members for the city of Pearsall; Adriann Ramirez, a trustee with the school district in Pearsall; and Rosa Rodriguez, who is described as an “alleged Frio County vote harvester.”
Reached by phone on Wednesday, Mr. Segura said, “The charges are ridiculous,” adding that he was advised by his lawyer not to comment further.
It was unclear Wednesday afternoon if most of those facing indictments had legal representation.
“The people of Texas deserve fair and honest elections, not backroom deals and political insiders rigging the system,” Mr. Paxton said in a statement. “Elected officials who think they can cheat to stay in power will be held accountable. No one is above the law.”
Mr. Paxton, who is challenging Texas’ senior senator, John Cornyn, in next year’s Senate primary, said his office would “continue to work with Frio County District Attorney Audrey Louis to protect the integrity of our elections.”
According to the indictments, most of the officials are accused of providing some sort of monetary compensation “in exchange for vote harvesting services.” Ms. Ramirez faces the most charges, three counts of vote harvesting. The indictment for Judge Camacho remained sealed.
Mr. Segura is charged with tampering with evidence. In the indictment, he is accused of “knowingly” concealing documents and records, applications for mail-in ballots and carrier envelopes, “with intent to impair the availability of the documents and records as evidence in any subsequent investigation related to the offense.”
Not included in the list of indicted was Manuel Medina, a local campaign consultant who was closely involved with the Tejano Democrats, a group that pushes for Hispanic representation in the Democratic Party. The raid last summer on Mr. Medina’s home gained national attention.
According to an affidavit used to seek the search warrant, an investigator obtained a recorded conversation in which Mr. Medina discussed collecting — or “harvesting” — ballots on behalf of a local candidate.
Court records show that agents with Mr. Paxton’s office spent seven hours at Mr. Medina’s house and seized papers, documents, photographs of family and others, as well as about 65 cellphones and 41 computers and storage devices.
Ms. Martinez described feeling terrified as the agents, seven of them men, pushed her door open and marched past a living room wall decorated with crucifixes. On Wednesday, as news of the indictments spread, she expressed relief that she was not facing criminal charges.
Ms. Martinez said she was asked if she had done any voting volunteer work in Frio County. She said no, and she did not hear from investigators again.
“They left me alone,” she said, adding, “This has been very stressful.”
Kitty Bennett contributed research.
