Well-known Democratic operative Guillermina Fuentes pleaded guilty Thursday to ballot abuse during the 2020 primary election, according to reports.
Fuentes could get probation after investigators with the Arizona attorney general’s office discovered that she was persuading voters to let her gather and sometimes fill out their ballots in the border city of San Luis.
In a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped three felony counts alleging the 66-year-old filled out one voter’s ballot and forged signatures on some of the four ballots she illegally returned for non-family members.
“Fuentes, a former San Luis mayor who serves as an elected board member of the Gadsden Elementary School District in San Luis, could be sentenced to up to two years in prison, but that would require a judge to find aggravating circumstances,” the Associated Press reported.
“The plea agreement leaves the actual sentence up to a judge, who could give her probation, home confinement and a hefty fine for her admission to illegally collecting and returning four voted ballots,” the report continued. “Sentencing was set for June 30. She will lose her voting rights and must give up elected office.
Attorney Anne Chapman ripped Arizona’s ballot collection law, saying it makes things more difficult for minorities who historically have relied on others to help them vote.
“This prosecution shows that the law is part of ongoing anti-democratic, state-wide, and national voter suppression efforts,” Chapman said.
Fuentes and her co-defendant were reportedly seen with several mail-in envelopes outside a cultural center in San Luis during the 2020 primary election, adding that the ballots were dropped in an indoor ballot box.
A write-in candidate recorded Fuentes and then called the Yuma County sheriff showing the former marking at least one ballot. However, that specific charge was dropped.
While the case involved only a handful of ballots, investigators believe the operation went much farther.
“It’s all about corruption in San Luis and skewing a city council election,” Yuma Republican Rep. Tim Dunn said. “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’s spreading across the country.”
