Arizona Attorney General Drops Hammer, Indicts Two More Suspects In Ballot Harvesting Scheme
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced the arrests of two more people in a Yuma County ballot harvesting scheme.
The AG announced that Gloria Lopez Torres of San Luis, and Nadia Guadalupe Lizarraga-Mayorquin 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 4, 2020. The City of San Luis held municipal elections on that date.
The Grand Jury indictments were returned on October 3, 2022. They allege that Torres collected seven ballots from Lizarraga-Mayorquin, and that Lizarraga-Mayorquin collected at least one ballot from a third party.
Arizona law only allows for a family member, household member, or caregiver of the voter to collect voted or unvoted early ballots from another person. Under Arizona law ballot harvesting is a class 6 felony.
This comes after a former Democratic mayor in Arizona was sentenced to jail after being convicted of ballot harvesting charges. Guillermina Fuentes was sentenced to 30 days in jail and two years probation after the judge rejected her plea for probation because he did not think she accepted responsibility for her criminal act.
Yuma County Superior Court Judge Roger Nelson overruled her character witnesses to send her to jail saying:
“The defendant acknowledged responsibility for carrying ballots for someone else. However, she stated, ‘I’m not a criminal.’ Well, you are a criminal. You committed a criminal offense.
“I don’t think you recognize that as a criminal offense. That’s the problem that I have.
“Many of the things that were put forward as mitigating factors, I think they’re also aggravating factors.
“You have been a leader in the San Luis community for a long time. People look up to you, people respect you, and they look to what you do.
“It’s been an issue for a long time, or at least it’s been alleged that it’s an issue, that people vote for others, take their ballots.
“Everybody that’s involved in politics in this area knew that a new law was passed.
“You certainly knew it, that that law was new, even went up to the Supreme Court.”
Anne Chapman, Fuentes’ lawyer, said:
“She entered a plea of guilty to ballot abuse — that is, delivering four lawfully voted, signature-verified ballots.
“The rest of the allegations against Ms. Fuentes are untrue, unfounded, untested and largely made-up by election-denying political opponents who have a political ax to grind.”
Assistant Attorney General Todd Lawson said:
“The question is, why does Fuentes feel the need to exert pressure over people in her community and control the flow of their ballot to the ballot box.
“That’s the issue of public integrity here,” he said.
Former Mayor of the City of San Luis Guillermina Fuentes was sentenced to a two-year probation and 30 days in jail for ballot harvesting, according to Attorney General Mark Bronvich. https://t.co/znfjINnsMM
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— Mark Brnovich (@GeneralBrnovich) October 19, 2022
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