A man who managed voter registration drives in Pennsylvania ahead of the 2024 presidential election has been sentenced to one month in county jail after pleading guilty to three misdemeanour counts. Guillermo Sainz Gurrola, a Phoenix resident, admitted to solicitation of registration, which prosecutors said involved offering financial incentives to canvassers who met quotas.
Sainz Gurrola was also fined $1,000 and will serve probation. The charges stem from registration drives in Lancaster, Berks and York counties. According to a court affidavit, 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.”
The investigation began weeks before the general election when election workers in Lancaster County flagged voter registration forms for potential fraud. Investigators said the forms contained false names, suspicious handwriting, questionable signatures, incorrect addresses and other problematic details. The actual issue involved about 2,500 suspected fraudulent voter registration forms, not ballots or votes.
Field+Media was funded by Everybody Votes, which has worked to improve voter registration rates in communities of colour. The court affidavit said Everybody Votes fully cooperated with the investigation and that its contract with Field+Media prohibited payments on a per-registration basis. Charges of forgery, unsworn falsification, public records tampering and violations of state elections and voter registration laws remain pending against six canvassers, with one also facing an identity theft charge.
