Felony charges have been filed against two Yuma County women for dropping off four people’s ballots at a voting center, while an investigation into how three dead people in Cochise County purportedly voted has ended with no prosecution, public records show.
Guillermina Fuentes and Alma Juarez have been indicted for allegedly collecting four already-completed ballots on Aug. 4, the date of the statewide primary election. They then dropped off the ballots at a Yuma County voting center in violation of Arizona’s ballot harvesting law, according to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
Although Fuentes and Juarez are accused of harvesting four ballots, they are each charged with only one Class 6 felony. The women’s cases will be heard in the Yuma County Superior Court and prosecuted by the Assistant Attorney General Todd Lawson.
Meanwhile, a report obtained by Arizona Daily Independent from the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office sheds little light on who tried to cast ballots for two Sierra Vista residents who died weeks before voting began for the General Election.
Det. Mike McGeoghegan’s report notes he was informed by Cochise County Recorder David Stevens on Nov. 5 that early-voting ballots were issued to the women on Oct. 7. A short time later, someone signed the women’s names on the ballot envelope affidavits and tried to cast the ballots.
Stevens’ office rejected both ballots after confirming alerts on the women’s voter registration files that they had recently died. The attempted voter fraud was reported to the sheriff’s office even though ballot made it to the elections department to be counted, Stevens said.
However, who filled out the two ballots and affixed signatures to the affidavits may never been known because McGeoghegan ended his investigation after “multiple attempts to make contact at the residences with negative results.”
The detective’s report notes both homes appeared unoccupied and one had a for-sale sign on the property, but it does not mention whether the residences relied on stand alone mailboxes or locked cluster boxes. There is also no mention of whether McGeoghegan attempted to contact family members or neighbors about the criminal offense.
A third report of voting fraud in Cochise County was closed within one week when McGeoghegan determined there was no way the incident could have occurred as alleged.
In that report, a tipster claimed that a woman was alleging someone at “the county offices in Bisbee” confirmed her deceased father’s ballot was used to cast a vote for former Vice President Joe Biden. The woman purportedly said the ballot “had gone missing” after the father’s death and he never would have voted for anyone but President Donald Trump.
McGeoghegan’s investigation revealed the father died in June, after which the county recorder’s office cancelled the 91-year-old’s voter registration before early ballots were issued for the Aug. 4 primary. That meant no ballot packet was mailed to the man.
In addition, the detective was advised by Chief Deputy Recorder Heather Lopez that “the system would have shown a problem if someone had tried to act as him at any polling location and would prevent a vote from being submitted.” McGeoghegan also learned there is no way to know who someone voted for.
“Lopez advised a ballot has absolutely no identifying information attached to it so there is no way for them or anyone to be able to see who a voted for,” the detective noted in his report. The report also shows McGeoghegan never spoke with the woman who purportedly made the voter fraud claims.
Cochise County officials did not issue a public statement at the conclusion of their investigations. But Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s office issued a press release earlier this week announcing the indictment of Fuentes and Juarez, who are both residents of San Luis.
The press release makes no mention of how the women came to be in possession of the four ballots nor what relationship, if any, they had with the voters. It’s also unclear who the women received the ballots from, as the press release simply states they were obtained “from another person.”
In Arizona, a person who knowingly collects voted or unvoted early ballots from another person is guilty of a Class 6 felony unless the person is a family member, household member, or caregiver of the voter. Election law defines a family member as “a person who is related to the voter by blood, marriage, adoption or legal guardianship,” while a household member means someone who resides at the same residence as the voter.
A caretaker is defined as “a person who provides medical or health care assistance to the voter in a residence, nursing care institution, hospice facility, assisted living center, assisted living facility, assisted living home, residential care institution, adult day health care facility or adult foster care home.”
Convictions for low-level felonies often result in probation, but the women could be imprisoned for up to two years if a judge finds aggravating circumstances. The ballot harvesting statute is currently under review by the Arizona Supreme Court.