Former Arizona Mayor Sentenced To Jail Over 2020 Ballot Harvesting Scheme

With the midterm elections coming up so very, very soon, in fact, we are exactly 18 days away from the midterms, well, naturally enough, more and more people are shifting their focus to the topic of election integrity. And so, along that line, today, let's discuss some new developments that are coming out of the state of Arizona, wherein, just six days ago, the former Democratic mayor of San Luis was sentenced to jail for her role in a 2020 ballot harvesting scheme. Specifically, this here is Ms. Guisarmina Fuentes. She used to be the mayor of a town on the U.S.-Mexico border called San Luis. It's located in Yuma County, Arizona. And according to this report here, that was written by the state attorney general's office, what happened was that an investigation was opened into Ms. Fuentes after someone recorded a videotape of her both collecting as well as filling out ballots at a table right outside of a polling place during the 2020 municipal primary elections. Now, this specific video was taken by Mr. Gary Garcia Snyder, who was a Republican running for the city council in that particular race. And when he saw what was happening, sitting in his car, well, he took out his phone and recorded the entire thing. I'll play a small part of the video for you. Now, I'll mention that this video doesn't really have any audio attached to it. And so, I'll read to you the report from the attorney general's office, which describes what's taking place on screen. Quote, a group of subjects led by Guisarmina Fuentes were seen on video manning a table A female, identified as Alma Juarez, approached the table and made contact with a second female identified as Guisarmina Fuentes. Fuentes is ultimately observed taking a ballot from Juarez. In the video, it is clear that the ballot envelope was unsealed. Fuentes was observed to pick up a pen or pencil and write on the ballot envelope. She then pulls the ballot out of the envelope and makes three marks, consistent with the filling in of spaces on a ballot to make a candidate selection. Fuentes put the ballot back in the envelope and sealed it. She then retrieved several more ballot envelopes from a folder on the table and handed them to Juarez. Juarez then walks toward the polling location. Investigators also mentioned in this particular report that Ms. Fuentes was using her position within the San Luis community to persuade local voters to allow either her or her general acquaintances to deposit ballots on their behalf. And for your reference, in the state of Arizona, this practice is overtly illegal. That's because according to Arizona's anti-ballot harvesting law, anyone who turns in early ballots on behalf of other people, unless those people are family members, household members, or caregivers, well, they face a felony charge. And so after this video emerged and the subsequent investigation was conducted, Ms. Fuentes, alongside her associate, Ms. Alma Juarez, the other woman in the videotape that we watched, both of them were charged with one count each of ballot abuse, a charge that both women pled guilty to. And within the last week, both women were handed down their punishments. Ms. Guitermina Fuentes was sentenced to 30 days in jail, as well as two years of supervised probation, while her accomplice, Ms. Alma Juarez, was given no jail time and only sentenced to one year of probation. I'm sure these sentences will make people in Arizona think twice about harvesting ballots, because they too could face either probation and or a month in jail. Regardless, shortly after these two women were given their sentences, another development occurred within San Luis. That's because just yesterday, the Arizona Attorney General's office announced another pair of women have also been indicted in an alleged Yuma County ballot harvesting scheme. Specifically, the two women are Ms. Gloria Lopez-Torres, who is a longtime city council member, as well as Ms. Nadia Guadalupe Lizarraga-Mayorkas, who also goes by the name Nadia Buchanan. Both of these women have each been charged with two class six felonies, one for conspiracy and the other for ballot abuse. Here's in fact what a statement from the Attorney General's office said in part when announcing these indictments, quote, Attorney General Mark Brunovich announced that Gloria Lopez-Torres of San Luis and Nadia Guadalupe Lizarraga-Mayorkan of San Luis, also known as Nadia Buchanan, have been charged by the state grand jury with conspiracy and ballot abuse arising from an alleged ballot harvesting scheme where early ballots from other voters were collected and deposited into a ballot box on primary election day, August 4th, 2020. The city of San Luis held municipal elections on that day. Now, what's interesting to note here in this new case is that the investigation by the Attorney General's Election Integrity Unit have been ongoing for well over a year. And their investigation, when you look into it, actually sheds quite a bit of light on what was truly happening behind the scenes, meaning it sheds light on the whole alleged ballot harvesting scheme that was playing itself out. And so to give you an idea of the background here, as well as the general scale of what was truly happening with this ballot harvesting operation, here's an excerpt from a report in the Arizona Daily Independent newspaper, quote, News of the indictment of Councilwoman Torres, who also serves as membership coordinator for a San Luis-based property management company, has been expected for several weeks. Back in May, Torres' cell phone was seized as a part of a court-approved search warrant that also allowed for Torres' home to be searched. At the time when the cell phone was seized, Torres' boss at the property management company publicly criticized Attorney General Mark Brunovich for his handling of the investigation. That boss, Marco Tony Reyes, is also the chairman of Yuma County's Board of Supervisors. Now, just to pause here for a super quick moment, you can already begin to see how well-connected this woman actually is, because not only is she a member of the city council, not only is she on her local school board, but her boss at the company that she works for also happens to be the chairman of the Yuma County Board of Supervisors. Regardless, the report continues by describing the method of their investigation, as well as exactly how this alleged ballot harvesting operation actually played itself out. Here's what it says, quote, But Councilwoman Torres had been a focus of Special Agent Roger Geisler and other investigators long before then. One investigatory report obtained by Arizona Daily Independent shows two Attorney General's Office special agents traveled to St. Louis in January of 2021 to obtain Torres' fingerprints under a court-approved search warrant. Fingerprints play a big role in the ballot harvesting investigation, with the FBI and the Arizona Department of Public Safety Crime Lab being asked to lift prints from dozens of ballots, as well as the affidavit envelopes those ballots were in when received by the Yuma County Recorder's Office. Other Attorney General's Office records reveal a photo of Torres was shown to at least one witness who told agents she left two 2020 primary election ballots outside her door for someone to pick up and deliver to a polling place. In his report, Special Agent Roger Geisler wrote this about an interview that he conducted, quote, Witness confirmed receiving a call about leaving their ballots for someone to collect and deliver for them. Geisler further noted that the witness observed the unnamed woman come to the door and collect the ballots, which again, as we mentioned earlier, within the state of Arizona, the type of ballot harvesting operation being described here is overtly illegal. Unless this woman happens to be leaving these ballots and picking them up from the doorsteps of her immediate family members, which obviously is not the case. Regardless, these two new cases are ongoing with court appearances expected later this year. And who knows? Maybe these two women will also get hit with some heavy probation sentences as well. I guess only time will tell. If you'd like to go deeper into these two cases, I'll throw a link below this video to the video that we watched, as well as all the related court documents as well. Furthermore, I'd love to know your thoughts on these cases. Particularly, I'd love to know your thoughts on these sentences. Do you think that these punishments are appropriate for the crimes that were committed? And, or, do you think that they were too lenient and therefore won't actually deter anyone from doing this again in the future? Please leave your comments in the comment section below. I'll be reading them tonight as well as tomorrow. 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