AUSTIN, Texas To hear Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tell it, the threat of voter fraud in his state is clear: Look no further than the sheer number of prosecutions and convictions his office has secured, particularly in the last year, to see the extent of the problem in his state, his office told House Democrats in a letter last week.

But a closer look at cases Paxtons office resolved in 2018 reveals that the vast majority ended with the defendant in a prosecution diversion program a clear signal, experts told HuffPost, that the cases were relatively minor.

By citing a large volume of cases, allegations and investigations, Paxton helps create the impression that the voter fraud problem in Texas is greater than the punishments imply. And his office is using that impression to justify giving the attorney general more resources to pursue these crimes while lawmakers push to ramp up penalties for voting offenses and create stricter rules, and officials haphazardly go through voter rolls hunting for alleged noncitizens. Those efforts could intimidate lawful voters from casting ballots, particularly at a time when Hispanic voters are poised to become an even more important voting bloc in Texas, civil rights advocates argue.

The letter, which came as House Democrats investigate allegations of voter suppression in Texas, trumpeted one of Paxtons favorite statistics. All told, the letter said, the Election Fraud Unit had prosecuted 33 defendants for a total of 97 election fraud violations in 2018. The investigations and prosecutions have taught us that organized voter fraud is happening in our state, Jeffrey Mateer, the first assistant attorney general, wrote in the letter.