Ballot Harvesting Mayor Headed to Jail for 30 Days
(RightWing.org) – A former mayor has found herself in jail for violating election laws in Arizona. The Democrat ran an illegal ballot harvesting operation during the 2020 general election. Now, she and her accomplice have both been convicted.
Arizona former Democratic mayor gets 30 days in jail for 'ballot abuse' during 2020 election | Just The News https://t.co/5g5XfdAeUO
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) October 14, 2022
Last week, Guillermina Fuentes, a prominent Democratic Party activist and the former mayor of San Luis, Arizona, was sentenced to 30 days in jail and two years of probation after pleading guilty in June to felony ballot harvesting. Fuentes pleaded guilty to collecting four early ballots from voters and handing them to fellow activist Alma Juarez, who took them to a polling place and put them in a drop-off bin. That violated an Arizona law that says only a voter’s family member, housemate, or caregiver can possess their mail-in ballot. Juarez was convicted of the crime in March and was sentenced to probation only.
At her sentencing, Yuma County Judge Roger Nelson criticized Fuentes for refusing to accept that she’d broken the law. At one point, she admitted possessing the ballots but claimed, “I’m not a criminal.” Nelson told her, “Well, you are a criminal,” and said it was a problem she didn’t recognize that.
When her defense team tried to claim that her local prominence was a mitigating factor, Nelson said that, in fact, that was an aggravating one, “People look up to you,” he said. Unfortunately, the example she’s shown people she’s a Democratic politician willing to break election integrity laws. That’s not going to rebuild confidence in our voting system.
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