A parade of character witnesses supplied a decide Thursday with glowing experiences a few southern Arizona girl who admitted to gathering 4 early ballots within the 2020 main election as her lawyer seeks leniency and prosecutors urge him to ship her to jail for a yr. Testimony in Yuma County Superior Court docket painted an image of Guillermina Fuentes as stuffed with regret and a pillar of small border group of San Luis.
The 66-year-old mom and grandmother, witnesses stated, has spent her life serving to others whereas elevating her kids, caring for her growing old mom and constructing a enterprise.
Jail or jail time, they stated, would damage the group and serve no goal.
Fuentes is a faculty board member and former mayor in San Luis who has pleaded responsible to a felony violation of Arizona's "poll harvesting" regulation, which bars anybody however an individual's relative, housemate or caregiver from returning ballots for them. Her codefendant, Alma Juarez, pleaded responsible to the identical cost, but it surely was designated as a misdemeanor after she agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
Her settlement requires a sentence of probation. She carried 4 ballots Fuentes gave her right into a polling place and dropped them off.
Republicans have seized on the case as an indication of widespread voting fraud, however it's the solely "poll harvesting" case ever prosecuted beneath Arizona's 2016 regulation banning the observe, and fewer than a dozen instances from the 2020 election have been filed in a state the place greater than 3.1 million votes have been solid.
In states the place the observe is authorized, volunteers or marketing campaign employees can go on to the properties of voters, acquire the finished ballots, and drop them off en masse at polling locations or election workplaces. In some states, poll harvesters will be paid hourly for his or her work gathering ballots.
Sherri Castillo, a protection mitigation skilled who interviewed Fuentes and others in the neighborhood, informed the court docket Thursday that her group involvement and volunteer work are laborious to adequately describe.
"She places me to disgrace, I can let you know that," Castillo stated. "I've by no means come throughout somebody who offers again extra to the group than Ms. Fuentes does."
"Ms. Fuentes not being in the neighborhood can be a detriment to the group," she added.
Others who testified earlier than Choose Roger Nelson included the county probation officer who really helpful no jail time in her report, a Yuma County supervisor and former state senator who has identified Fuentes for years, and a retired San Luis police officer who has identified her since 1971 when each have been rising up within the then-tiny border group and serves along with her now on a neighborhood faculty board.
"I feel that in our group numerous us look as much as her," retired police officer Luis Marquez stated.
Assistant Legal professional Basic Todd Lawson is in search of a yr in jail for Fuentes, telling Nelson that the case is in regards to the safety of elections and the 2016 Arizona regulation barring "poll harvesting." That is the primary prosecution beneath that regulation, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court docket final yr.
He stated that whereas Fuentes and Juarez have been captured on video by a political rival exterior a vote middle analyzing 4 voted ballots, the query stays what they have been doing.
"The query is, why does (Fuentes) really feel the necessity to exert stress over individuals in her group and management the movement of their poll to the poll field," Lawson informed the decide. "That is the problem of public integrity right here."
Prosecutors alleged in court docket papers that Fuentes ran a classy operation utilizing her standing in Democratic politics in San Luis to influence voters to let her collect and, in some instances, fill out their ballots. However they dropped extra critical prices of conspiracy and forgery and each pleaded responsible to a single rely of poll abuse.
A protection skilled who researched election regulation instances in Arizona testified that nobody with a clear document has ever been sentenced to jail or jail up to now 20 years. Anne Chapman, Fuentes' lawyer, informed Nelson that doing so can be a miscarriage of justice.
"She entered a plea of responsible to poll abuse — that's, delivering 4 lawfully voted, signature-verified ballots," Chapman stated. "The remainder of the allegations in opposition to Ms. Fuentes are unfaithful, unfounded, untested and largely made-up by election-denying political opponents who've a political ax to grind."
Nelson's court docket assistant beforehand informed attorneys within the case in an electronic mail that he intends "to offer them 30 days in jail." He set sentencing for each girls for subsequent week.