Harrisburg, Pennsylvania– A yearlong investigation into suspected fraudulent voter registration forms submitted before last year’s presidential election led to criminal charges Friday against six street canvassers and the man who led their work in Pennsylvania.
Republican Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said the fraud allegations appeared to be motivated by the defendants’ desire to make money and keep their jobs and were not an attempt to influence the election results.
Guillermo Saenz, 33, who prosecutors described as the manager of the company’s registration campaigns in Pennsylvania, was charged with three counts of solicitation of registration, a state law that prohibits offering money to access registration quotas. A message seeking comment was left at a number linked to Saenz, who lives in Arizona. He did not have an attorney listed in court records.
The six auditors were charged with unsworn fraud, tampering with public records, forgery and violating Pennsylvania election law. The charges relate to activities in three Republican-leaning counties in Pennsylvania: York, Lancaster and Berks.
“We are confident that the motive behind these crimes was personal financial gain, and not a conspiracy or organized effort to tip the balance of any election in favor of any candidate or party,” Sunday said in a press release. Prosecutors said the forms included all party affiliations.
In an affidavit filed with the criminal charges on Friday, investigators said Saenz, an employee of Field+Media Corps, “provided illegal financial incentives and pressure in pursuit of company goals to maintain funding which in turn led some canvassers to create and submit false forms to earn more money.”
The CEO of Field+Media Corps, based in Mesa, Arizona, said last year that the company was proud of its work to expand voting but had no information about problematic registration forms. A message seeking comment was left Friday for CEO Francisco Heredia. The Field+Media Corps website does not appear to be working.
Field+Media was funded by Everyone Vote, an effort to improve voter registration rates in communities of color. All Voices “fully cooperated” with the investigation and noted that its contract with Field+Media prohibits payment on a per-recording basis, the affidavit said.
“The investigation confirmed that we hold our partners to the highest standards of quality control when collecting, handling and delivering voter registration applications,” Every Body Votes said in an emailed statement from a spokesperson.
Saenz, who ran Penn State’s operations from May to October 2024, is accused of paying commissioners based on the number of signatures they collected. Saenz told prosecutors with the district attorney’s office earlier this month that he was not aware of any commissioners being paid overtime if they reached their target number of forms, the police affidavit said.
“Saenz had to be asked the question several times before he stated that he did not know about this and that ‘everyone was hourly,’” investigators wrote.
One contestant said she created fake forms to increase her pay, and believed others did as well, according to a police affidavit. Another told investigators that most of the registration forms he collected were “not real.” A third reported that when she realized she would not make the daily quota, she “was making up names and information,” police wrote, “out of fear of losing her job.”
the The investigation began In late October 2024, when election workers in Lancaster flagged about 2,500 voter registration forms for possible fraud. Authorities said it contained fake names, suspicious handwriting, questionable signatures, incorrect addresses, and other problematic details.
The reference to the existence of criminal activity related to the elections came at a time when the state was considered a pivotal battleground in the presidential elections, and the candidate at the time was Donald Trump took over On the news. During one of the electoral campaign events, it was announced that there was “fraud” involving “2,600” votes. The actual problem in Lancaster was about 2,500 suspected voter registration forms, not ballots or votes.