PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona woman indicted in 2020 on charges of illegally collecting ballots apparently ran a sophisticated operation using her status as a known Democratic operative in the border town of San Luis to persuade voters to get her. to collect and, in some cases, fill out their ballots, according to data obtained by The Associated Press.
Guillermina Fuentes, 66, and a second woman were charged in December 2020 with a count of ballot misuse, a practice commonly known as “ballot papers” that was made illegal under a 2016 state law. Conspiracy charges were filed last October. , forgery and an additional charge of vote abuse added.
Fuentes, a former mayor of San Luis who is an elected board member of the Gadsden Elementary School District in San Luis, has a court date Thursday to change her not guilty plea. Her co-defendant is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to a reduced charge several months ago.
Fuentes is accused of collecting ballots during the 2020 primaries in violation of a law that allows only a caregiver or family member to return and in some cases fill in someone else’s early vote.
Her attorney, Anne Chapman, said in an email on Thursday that she had no comment on the allegations against her client.
But she denounced the ballot collection law in Arizona, saying it hinders minority voters who have traditionally relied on others to help them vote. She said that “this prosecution demonstrates that the law is part of the ongoing anti-democratic, state-wide and national efforts to suppress voters.”
Republicans have spoken out about the possibility of widespread vote fraud in the 2020 election that defeated former President Donald Trump. They have pointed to the charges against Fuentes as part of a wider pattern in battlefield states.
However, nothing of this can be found in the research files. They were obtained through a public registry request from the Arizona Attorney General’s office first made in February 2021 but turned down. The AP sent out a new request last October after more charges were filed against Fuentes. The Attorney General eventually provided more than 20 documents related to the investigation late last week.
The data shows that less than a dozen ballots can be tied to Fuentes, not enough to make a difference in all but the tightest local races. She is only charged with illegally handling four ballots.
It is the only case ever brought by the attorney general under the 2016 law, which was ratified by the US Supreme Court last year.
Investigators said it appears she used her position as a powerful figure in the heavily Mexican-American community to get people to give her or others their ballots to return to the polls.
The alleged illegal ballot collection by Fuentes and her co-defendant happened in plain sight outside a San Luis cultural center on the day of the primaries, the reports show. Fuentes sat at a card table set up by supporters of a string of city council candidates and was spotted carrying several ballot papers, taking out the ballots and marking them in some cases.
The ballots were then taken at the cultural center and deposited in a ballot box.
It was filmed by a candidate who applied, who called the Yuma County Sheriff. An investigation was launched that day and about 50 ballot papers were checked for fingerprints, which were inconclusive. The investigation was taken over by the attorney general’s office within days, with investigators working with sheriff’s deputies to interview voters and others, including Fuentes.
While Fuentes is only accused of videotaped actions and involving only a handful of ballots, investigators believe the effort went much further.
Investigator William Kluth of the Attorney General’s Office wrote in a report that there was some evidence that Fuentes actively surveyed San Luis neighborhoods and collected ballots, in some cases paying for them.
Collecting ballots that way was a common vote-gathering tactic used by both political parties before Arizona passed the 2016 law. Paying for ballots has never been legal.
There is no sign that she or anyone else in Yuma County collected ballots in the general election, but investigators from the attorney general’s office are still active in Yuma County.
The Republic of Arizona reported on Tuesday that search warrants were issued last month at a nonprofit in San Luis. The group’s executive director, chairman of the Yuma County Board of Supervisors, said the warrant sought the cell phone of a San Luis councilor who may have been involved in illegal ballot collection.
And at a legislative hearing Tuesday, where election conspiracy theorists testified, the Yuma primaries case was another high point.
“It’s all about corruption in San Luis and skewing a municipal election,” Republican Rep. Yuma said. Tim Dunn. “This has been going on for a long time, that you can’t have free and fair elections in South County for decades. And it is spreading all over the country.”
Ballot misuse is a felony that carries a possible jail term of up to two years and a $150,000 fine.
