(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – Voting booths are set up at a polling place in Newtown, Pa., Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A man who managed problem-plagued voter registration drives in Pennsylvania ahead of the 2024 presidential election pleaded guilty Monday to three misdemeanor counts and was sentenced to a month in county jail.
Phoenix resident Guillermo Sainz Gurrola was also fined $1,000 and will serve probation for three counts of solicitation of registration, which prosecutors described as offering financial incentives to canvassers who met quotas.
The attorney general’s office said charges of forgery, unsworn falsification, public records tampering and violations of state elections and voter registration laws remain pending against six canvassers. One is also facing an identity theft charge.
Sainz Gurrola’s defense attorney, Timothy M. Stengel, declined comment but said his client apologized in court. Authorities had previously identified him as Guillermo Sainz, but Stengel and the online court docket gave his name as Guillermo Sainz Gurrola.
Stengel said the plea on Monday involved registration drives in Lancaster, Berks and York counties.
In a court affidavit filed with the criminal charges, investigators said Sainz Gurrola, an employee of Field+Media Corps, “instituted unlawful financial incentives and pressures in his push to meet company goals to maintain funding which in turn spurred some canvassers to create and submit fake forms to earn more money.”
Field+Media was funded by Everybody Votes, which has worked to improve voter registration rates in communities of color. The court affidavit said Everybody Votes had fully cooperated with the investigation and that its contract with Field+Media prohibited payments on a per-registration basis.
Sainz Gurrola managed Pennsylvania operations from May to October 2024.
The investigation began in the weeks before the general election when election workers in Lancaster County flagged voter registration forms for potential fraud. Investigators said they appeared to contain false names, suspicious handwriting, questionable signatures, incorrect addresses and other problematic details.
In the homestretch of the presidential contest, then-candidate Donald Trump seized on the case, declaring there had been “cheating” involving “2,600” votes. The actual issue in Lancaster was about 2,500 suspected fraudulent voter registration forms, not ballots or votes.
