A Latino voting group, accused of helping register illegal aliens to vote, has sued Attorney General Ken Paxton, claiming “retaliation.”
Paxton sued Jolt Initiative last month, accusing the group of a voter registration scheme “designed to sabotage Texas election integrity and allow illegals to vote,” as The Dallas Express reported. Now, per a press release, Jolt sued Paxton on November 11 for alleged retaliation.
“Let the record show that the Texas Attorney General is using the power of his office to silence Latino voters,” said Jolt Executive Director Jackie Bastard in the release.
Paxton’s office investigated the group in 2024 for allegedly helping register illegal aliens to vote, according to his recent lawsuit. The attorney general’s office then requested to examine Jolt’s voter registration records.
In response, Jolt filed a federal lawsuit, claiming the investigation was based on “baseless conspiracy theories,” according to the release. Jolt claimed the request for records was due to the group’s “protected expression, including its voter registration drives and public speech on matters of importance to Latinos.”
Paxton’s office and Jolt agreed to dismiss the case. However, Paxton sued Jolt on October 23 to hold Jolt accountable for “underlying systematic and unlawful conduct” and to revoke its right to conduct business in Texas.
“The left constantly tries to cheat and rig elections because they know they can’t win honestly,” Paxton said in a release. “Any organization attempting to register illegals, who are all criminals, must be completely crushed and shut down immediately.”
Now, Jolt is suing… again.
“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,” Bastard said in the recent release. “The state’s quo warranto petition is explicitly retaliatory, citing our voter registration activity and prior lawsuit as a reason for its filing.”
The Dallas Express inquired whether Jolt registers illegal aliens to vote outside DMV locations and why it didn’t want to share registration documents with Paxton’s office. A representative did not reply in time for publication.
The Allegations
Fox News Reporter Maria Bartiromo posted on X in August 2024 that DMV locations in Weatherford and Fort Worth had a “massive line of immigrants getting licenses,” with a “tent and table outside the front door of the DMV registering them to vote.”
Following these reports, Paxton’s office launched an investigation and sent an undercover investigator to a DMV location in Universal City, outside San Antonio, according to his recent lawsuit.
“When the investigator arrived at the DMV location, he made contact with a JOLT VDR and represented himself as a father seeking to register his daughter, who was not with him,” the suit reads. “In spite of the absence of his daughter, the JOLT VDR instructed the undercover agent as to how the agent could submit a voter registration application on behalf of his fictitious daughter.”
After leaving, the investigator reported Jolt’s conduct was unlawful under the Texas Election Code. Jolt allegedly acknowledges it engages in this kind of activity, holding voter registration drives outside DMV locations.
“JOLT’s decision to conduct its voter registration efforts outside of DMV locations illuminates its unlawful motive too. This is because U.S. citizens can already register to vote at any DMV with proof of citizenship,” the suit reads. “Thus, there is no need for a VDR at such locations.”
Voter registration applications allow applicants to apply for registration without a state-issued ID or Social Security number, according to the suit. So Paxton’s office claims “JOLT dispatches its V[olunteer] D[eputy] R[egistrars] to these locations for the purpose of allowing and soliciting illegal aliens to submit voter registration applications without IDs or social security numbers.”
In one instance, a Jolt VDR apparently said an illegal alien could submit a voter registration application “if they really wanted to.”
‼️Investigative Report we have Marxist non profit organizations like @JoltAction infiltrating Texas @TxDPS locations in San Antonio.
I approached the man sitting behind the table and asked him if any of the 20 million illegal aliens that have invaded our country in the past 3… pic.twitter.com/WlQu1SzM3n
— hernando arce (@hernandoarce) August 20, 2024
The Dallas Express contacted a Jolt media representative to inquire if this was the case or if there was any other context, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
“JOLT is engaged in systematic violations of Texas election laws by enabling, facilitating, directing, coercing, and attempting to induce individuals to submit false statements in their voter registration applications,” Paxton’s suit claims.
Jolt Director of Programs Maria Tolentino said in the recent release that the group is seeking to defend its 1st Amendment rights.
“This campaign is not about election integrity; it is an act of political intimidation intended to suppress the vote of young Latinos in Texas,” she said.
Deeper Ties
Jolt is a leftist get-out-the-vote group that targets Latinos in Texas, according to InfluenceWatch. It launched in 2016 to boost voter participation, which it calls “non-partisan.”
“By 2030, Latinos will be the majority,” Jolt’s website reads. “With this demographic shift comes the opportunity to organize millions of Latinos to fight for lasting change in the Lone Star State.”
Jolt’s “history” webpage was apparently down at the time of publication, but an archived version explained that its founder, Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, aimed to “fight back against the politics of hate” by boosting Latino voting power.
“She set to bridge traditional voter registration and engagement work with Latino culture and art,” the archived page reads. “We are empowering young Latinos to harness the brilliance of our community and culture to create a collective voice that drives change.”
Jolt runs high school and university chapters across Texas to advance “good jobs and climate justice,” universal healthcare and education, “respect for immigrant families,” and “protecting voting rights.”
“We do not stand with any one political party, but rather for the nearly 11 million Latinos in Texas as we advocate for and drive the decisions around the issues that most impact our lives,” the webpage reads.
Jolt has three main programs. The Jolt Young Leaders Club organizes student chapters to register voters in schools across the state. Poder Quince provides photo booths and organizes voter registrations at quinceañeras. Arriba Las Mujeres provides activism training for young Latina women, and for “people who self-identify as women.”
Ramirez co-founded the Workers Defense Project – a left-wing group that represents immigrants in the workforce and collaborates with powerful unions – in 2003, according to InfluenceWatch.
She ran as a Democrat to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate in 2020, but lost in the primary, according to Ballotpedia.
Ramirez also served as president of NextGen America, but recently stepped down after serving in that role for four years. She is a partner at Ascend Strategy Labs, a social justice firm that aims to bring “transformation.”
Jolt reported $2.6 million in revenue in 2022, and $2 million in total expenses, according to InfluenceWatch.
“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,” Paxton said in a recent release. “I will make sure they face the full force of the law.”