She pleads guilty to illegal ballot harvesting but her lawyers calls it part of 'voter suppression'

Guillermina Fuentes, 66, entered a plea agreement with Arizona state prosecutors on Thursday, sparing her a trial and possible forgery and conspiracy charges that would land her in the clink in the twilight of her life. The Democratic Party operative pleaded guilty to illegal ballot-harvesting of mail-in votes in the Arizona 2020 primary election.

However, Fuentes' lawyer is calling the law she violated part of a campaign of "state-wide and national voter suppression efforts." That's like putting lipstick on a pig.

According to The Associated Press, Fuentes “could get probation for running what Arizona attorney general’s office investigators said was a sophisticated operation using her status as a well-known Democratic operative in the border city of San Luis to persuade voters to let her gather and in some cases fill out their ballots.”

So that means Fuentes, in effect, is being denied the right to vote as many times as possible using other people's ballots. That doesn't seem fair . . . if you're an illegal voter enthusiast, better known as a Democrat. That isn't to say the GOP doesn't have its share of miscreants who would stuff the ballot box; we just don't have as many of them.

Fuentes and another woman faced a 2020 indictment for ballot abuse after harvesting ballots in Yuma County for the 2020 election. Under Arizona law, only a household member, family member or caregiver is allowed to collect a voter’s ballot.

According to prosecutors, Fuentes used her community status to solicit ballots from other voters and drop them off. But unbeknownst to her, a write-in candidate captured video of her and the other woman outside a San Luis cultural center on primary day. She had several mail-in envelopes which were later taken into the polling place and dropped in a ballot box, which, of course, is illegal.

The video, provided to the Yuma County sheriff, allegedly shows Fuentes marking a ballot before dropping it in, and charges for that act were among those dropped in the plea agreement. So Fuentes pleaded guilty to illegal collection and return of four ballots, and that could possibly sentence her to two years in the slammer, but to do that, a judge would have to find aggravated circumstances in the crime.

As it now stands, Fuentes will probably face probation, a large fine and home confinement when she's sentenced June 30. She will also lose her voting rights and be required to give up elected office.

Fuentes was decisively linked to harvesting only about a dozen ballots — a number that wouldn’t have necessarily swung anything aside from tight local races. However, officials believe her involvement went deeper than that, but at least she didn't sleep with Willy Brown.

“Attorney general’s office investigator William Kluth wrote in one report that there was some evidence suggesting Fuentes actively canvassed San Luis neighborhoods and collected ballots, in some cases paying for them,” the AP reported.

“It’s all about corruption in San Luis and skewing a city council election,” said Arizona state Rep. Tim Dunn (R) who represents Yuma County.

“This has been going on for a long time, that you can’t have free and fair elections in south county, for decades. And it’s spreading across the country.”

However, Fuentes’ attorney decried the fact there was any kind of ballot-harvesting legislation in Arizona at all, saying that the legislation was aimed at minority voters who, as the AP put it, “have historically relied on others to help them vote.”

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“[T]his prosecution shows that the law is part of ongoing anti-democratic, state-wide, and national voter suppression efforts,” said Anne Chapman, Fuentes’ arrogant attorney. She didn’t mention her client’s plea, however.

Voters are getting concerned that their one vote doesn't count anymore. There's no doubt that voter corruption exists, but to what extent is unknown. One thing is certain, with mail-in voting and ballot harvesting, it's only going to get worse and soon, voters will be too apathetic to vote, especially when illegal aliens arrive at the ballot box.

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