Nine Latino Democratic officials and political operatives pleaded not guilty on Wednesday in South Texas to charges of criminal voter fraud, accusations that their defenders called blatant voter suppression and political intimidation by the state’s Republican attorney general.
Gerry Goldstein, a lawyer for the most prominent defendant, told the presiding judge that he had filed a motion Wednesday morning to dismiss the charges and challenge the constitutionality of the state law used to prosecute his client, Juan Manuel Medina, a former chairman of the Democratic Party of Bexar County, the fourth largest in the state.
Gabriel Rosales, the director of the Texas chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, called the charges “a complete attack on democracy.”
“This is voter suppression 101,” Mr. Rosales said.
The nine defendants, including Mr. Medina, were indicted last month by a South Texas district attorney working with the state’s famously conservative attorney general, Ken Paxton. Six of the defendants appeared in person in a courtroom in Pearsall, Texas, while three others, including Mr. Medina, appeared via Zoom. A state judge is expected to consider the motion to dismiss the case in early October.
It was the second time in less than four months that Mr. Paxton has charged prominent Latino Democratic officials with criminal “ballot harvesting,” the usually routine act of collecting absentee ballots and bringing them to drop boxes or polling sites to be counted. A half-dozen people, including a county judge, two City Council members and a former county election administrator, were charged with voter fraud in May.
The indictments stem from Mr. Paxton’s “election integrity unit,” which launched a sprawling voter fraud inquiry in Latino enclaves near San Antonio and in South Texas. Mr. Paxton has claimed that several Latino officials engaged in vote harvesting to benefit local Latino candidates.
“Let me be crystal clear: the integrity of our elections is the bedrock of our democratic process, and any elected official trying to cheat the system will have to answer for it,” Mr. Paxton said in a statement.
Audrey Gossett Louis, a Republican district attorney from the 81st Judicial District, first alerted Mr. Paxton’s office to the allegations.
Voter harvesting usually involves knocking on doors and asking if volunteers can deliver completed absentee or mail-in ballots to voting centers or ballot drop boxes, a legal act in most of the country, and encouraged by both parties. But in 2021 Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation that outlawed delivering a ballot for a third party, the law which is now being challenged as unconstitutional.
Many activists have said that they fear that the exchange of money could also be considered illegal, even if it is to compensate for gas or the cost of delivering or casting ballots.
Mr. Paxton, who is challenging Texas’ senior senator, John Cornyn, in next year’s Republican primary, said his office would continue to work with Ms. Gossett Louis to bring the accused to justice. “Under my watch, attempts to rig elections and silence the will of the voters will be met with the full force of the law,” Mr. Paxton said.
Those facing charges include Mr. Medina, who has been closely involved with a group that pushes for Hispanic representation in the Democratic Party; Cecilia Castellano, a former candidate for a Texas State House district; Raul Carrizales, a county commissioner with Frio County; Mary Ann Obregon, a former mayor of Dilley, Texas; Inelda Rodriguez, a former Dilley City Council member; Davina Trevino, a former City Council candidate in Pearsall, Texas; Mari Benavides, a school board trustee with the Pearsall school district and two voting activists, Susie Carrizales and Rachel Leal.
According to the indictments, most of the people named are accused of providing some sort of monetary compensation “in exchange for vote harvesting services.”
Mr. Medina, the current chief of staff to Texas State Rep. Elizabeth Campos and the highest profile official named in the court documents, faces two charges of vote harvesting. On two occasions on Feb. 23, 2024, the indictment said, Mr. Medina “did knowingly provide compensation or other benefit” to two different people on behalf of Ms. Castellano.
Courts records also say several of the accused engaged in vote harvesting by, in part, using the money exchange app CashApp, in order to pay someone to collect ballots to benefit local races.
In May, Mr. Paxton’s office announced similar voter fraud charges against six local officials, including a county judge, two City Council members and a former county election administrator, for similar voter fraud violations.
Leaders with LULAC, one of the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights organizations, have said that law enforcement raids last August on political operatives and voting organizers, some of whom were in their 70s and 80s, were motivated by politics, not criminal activity. They have also accused Mr. Paxton, a conservative firebrand, of trying to suppress votes in Latino majority enclaves.
Last year LULAC officials called on the Department of Justice under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to investigate the way the raids were conducted. Some of those raided, including a retired 87-year-old educator, described heavily armed officers barging into their homes early in the morning and taking cellphones, computers and documents.
Mr. Paxton created his “election integrity unit” after President Trump, at the conclusion of his first term, falsely made claims of voter fraud upon losing the 2020 election. Experts have found that voter fraud remains rare.
Court records show that agents with Mr. Paxton’s office spent seven hours at Mr. Medina’s house, and seized papers, documents and photographs of family members and others, as well as about 65 cellphones and 41 computers and storage devices.