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A year-long investigation into suspected fraudulent voter registration forms submitted before last year’s presidential election resulted in criminal charges against six street canvassers and the man who led their work. pennsylvania,
Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave said Sunday that the fraud charges appear to be motivated by the defendants’ desire to make money and keep their jobs and were not an attempt to influence the election results. republican,
Guillermo Saenz, 33, described by prosecutors as the director of a company’s registration campaign in Pennsylvania, was charged with three counts of soliciting registration, a state law that prohibits offering money to reach registration quotas. A message seeking comment was left at a number associated with Saenz, who lives in ArizonaHe did not have an attorney listed in court records.
Six canvassers have been charged with unconstitutional fraud, tampering with public records, forgery and violations of Pennsylvania election law. The charges relate to activities in three Republican-leaning Pennsylvania counties: York, lancaster And Burks.
“We believe the motive behind these crimes was personal financial gain, and not a conspiracy or organized effort to influence any election for any one candidate or party,” it said in a news release Sunday. Prosecutors said the form included the affiliations of all parties.
In a court affidavit filed with criminal charges Friday, investigators said Saenz, an employee of Field + Media Corps, “exposed unlawful financial incentives and pressure to meet company goals in order to maintain funding, resulting in some campaigners creating and submitting fake forms to earn more money.”
The chief executive of Field+Media Corps, based in Mesa, Arizona, said the company was proud of its work last year to expand voting but had no knowledge of the problematic registration form. A message seeking comment was left Friday for CEO Francisco Heredia. The Field+Media Corps website did not appear to be operational.
Field+Media was funded by Everybody Votes, an effort to improve voter registration rates in communities of color. The affidavit said Everybody Votes “fully cooperated” with the investigation and that its contract with Field+Media prohibited payments on a per-registration basis.
“The investigation confirmed that we hold our partners to the highest standards of quality control when collecting, handling and distributing voter registration applications,” an emailed statement from a spokesperson for Everybody Votes said.
Saenz, who managed the Pennsylvania operation from May to October 2024, is accused of paying canvassers based on how many signatures he collected. The police affidavit said Saenz told agents in the attorney general’s office earlier this month that he was not aware of any cases in which a campaigner had to pay extra hours to reach the targeted number of forms.
“Saenz was asked the question several times before he responded that he had no knowledge of it and that ‘everyone was on an hourly basis,'” investigators wrote.
According to a police affidavit, a publicist said he falsified forms to inflate his salary and believed others had done the same. Another told investigators that most of the registration forms he collected “were not genuine.” A third reported that when she realized she would not reach the daily quota, “she fabricated the name and information out of fear of losing her job,” police wrote.
The investigation began in late October 2024, when election workers in Lancaster flagged approximately 2,500 voter registration forms for potential fraud. Officials said they appear to include false names, suspicious handwriting, suspicious signatures, wrong addresses and other problematic details.
The suggestion of criminal activity related to the election came as the battleground state was considered decisive for the presidential election, and then the candidates donald trump Captured the news. At a campaign event, he announced that there had been “fraud” involving “2,600” votes. The real issue in Lancaster was approximately 2,500 suspected fraudulent voter registration forms, not ballots or votes.