Yuma County, Arizona — Arizona woman charged with illegally collecting ballots in 2020 uses her status as a high-profile Democratic operative in the border town of San Luis to collect ballots for voters It seems that he carried out a sophisticated strategy to persuade him. Case will fill out the ballot, according to records obtained by the Associated Press.

In December 2020, Guillermina Fuentes, 66, and a second woman were charged with ballot abuse, a practice commonly known as “ballot robbery,” which was made illegal under 2016 state law. I was. In October last year, conspiracy, forgery and vote abuse charges were added.

Fuentes, a former San Luis mayor of the city of San Luis and an elected board member of San Luis’ Gadsden Elementary School District, has a Thursday court date that could change her acquittal plea. He is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to a previously reduced charge.

Fuentes is accused of collecting ballots and, in some cases, filling them out during the 2020 primary election in violation of laws that only allow caregivers or family members to return other people’s early ballots. It has been.

Her attorney, Ann Chapman, has not responded to repeated inquiries for comment, including Wednesday.

Republicans have rallied about the possibility of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election that former President Donald Trump lost. increase.

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However, there is no indication of that in the investigative records. They were obtained through a public records request from the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, first made in February 2021, but denied. The AP submitted a new request last October after more charges were filed against Fuentes. The attorney general finally provided his 20-plus documents outlining the investigation late last week.

Records show that fewer than 12 ballots can be linked to Fuentes, not enough to make a difference in all but the toughest local elections. This is the only lawsuit filed by the Attorney General under the 2016 Act. Upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court last year.

Investigators say she apparently used her position as a powerful figure in the predominantly Mexican-American community to entice people to get her and others to put their ballots back into the ballot.

According to reports, the illegal ballot collection by Fuentes and her co-defendants apparently took place outside the San Luis Cultural Center on the day of the primary election. Fuentes was at a card table set up by supporters of the city council candidate and was found in several mail-in ballot envelopes, pulling out ballots and possibly marking them.

The ballots were then removed inside the Cultural Center and placed in ballot boxes.

It was videotaped by a writing candidate who called the Yuma County Sheriff. An investigation was launched that day, and about 50 votes were fingerprinted, but it was inconclusive. The investigation was handed over to the Attorney General’s Office within days, and investigators worked with the sheriff’s deputy to interview voters and others, including Fuentes.

Fuentes has only been charged with actions that appear on videotape and involve only a handful of votes, but investigators believe the effort went much further.

Attorney General’s Office investigator William Cruz said in a report that there was evidence to suggest that Fuentes actively searched the San Luis area, collecting ballots and in some cases paying for them. I wrote that there are several.

Collecting ballots in this manner was a common method of voting for both political parties before Arizona passed a 2016 law. Paying for ballots was not legal.

There is no evidence that she or anyone else in Yuma County collected ballots in the general election, but agents in the Attorney General’s Office are still active in Yuma County.

The Arizona Republic reported Tuesday that a search warrant was served last month on a nonprofit in San Luis. It said it wanted the cell phone of a San Luis city council member who may have been involved in the robbery.

And at Tuesday’s legislative hearings where election conspiracy theorists testified, Yuma’s primary case was once again the highlight.

“It’s all about corruption in San Luis and the distortion of the city council election,” said Yuma Republican Rep. Tim Dunn. “For decades, Southern counties have been unable to hold free and fair elections. And it’s spreading across the country.”

Ballot abuse is a felony punishable by up to two years in prison and a $150,000 fine.

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