HARRISBURG, Pa. — An Arizona man who oversaw troubled voter registration operations in Pennsylvania during the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election received a one-month jail sentence Monday after entering guilty pleas to three misdemeanor charges.
Guillermo Sainz Gurrola, who lives in Phoenix, also received a $1,000 fine and probation terms for three counts of solicitation of registration. Prosecutors said he created illegal financial rewards for registration workers who achieved certain targets.
Six registration canvassers still face pending charges including forgery, unsworn falsification, tampering with public records, and violations of election and voter registration statutes, according to the attorney general’s office. One individual also faces identity theft allegations.
Defense lawyer Timothy M. Stengel chose not to comment but noted his client offered an apology during court proceedings. Officials had initially identified the defendant as Guillermo Sainz, though Stengel and court records show his full name as Guillermo Sainz Gurrola.
According to Stengel, Monday’s guilty plea covered registration activities in Lancaster, Berks and York counties.
Court documents reveal that Sainz Gurrola worked for Field+Media Corps and “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,” investigators stated in their affidavit.
Everybody Votes provided funding for Field+Media, working to boost voter registration in minority communities. The court filing noted that Everybody Votes cooperated completely with investigators and had contractual language forbidding payments based on registration numbers.
Sainz Gurrola supervised Pennsylvania activities between May and October 2024.
The probe started weeks before the general election after Lancaster County election officials identified potentially fraudulent voter registration documents. Investigators discovered the forms contained fake identities, suspicious penmanship, dubious signatures, wrong addresses and additional concerning elements.
During the final weeks of the presidential campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump highlighted the incident, claiming “cheating” had occurred with “2,600” votes. However, the Lancaster situation involved approximately 2,500 questionable voter registration documents, not actual ballots or cast votes.
