San Luis councilwoman sentenced for ballot harvesting
San Luis City Councilwoman Gloria Torres was sentenced to probation for 24 months and fined $2,500 on Thursday after pleading guilty to ballot harvesting in the San Luis primary election of 2020.
As part of her sentence in Yuma County Superior Court, Torres will not be able to seek re-election to the city council once her current term ends in 2024.
In an agreement with the
Arizona Attorney General’s
Office, Torres pleaded guilty to breaking a state law that prohibits anyone but a family member or caregiver from carrying a voter’s early ballot to the polls for counting. Torres was the third of three women sentenced for so-called “ballot harvesting” in the city’s August 2020 primary.
Making brief comments to the court before her sentencing, Torres apologized for her actions and for the amount of time the case occupied the court.
Jorge Lozano, the attorney for Torres, said the sentence imposed by Superior Court Judge Claudia Gonzalez was fair.
“The message is, obviously, don’t carry ballots that belong to people who don’t live with you or who are not your family members,” Lozano said.
Torres and Nadia Guadalupe Lizarraga-mayorquin, who is also known as Nadia Buchanan, were both indicted on Oct. 3, 2022, by a state grand jury for ballot harvesting.
During an investigation by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, it was determined that Torres collected seven early-voting ballots from other people and Lizarraga-mayorquin deposited them in a ballot box.
Lizarraga-mayorquin was sentenced to 24 months of supervised probation and ordered to pay a $2,500 fine in March.
Guillermina Fuentes, a former San Luis mayor and then-member of the Gadsden Elementary School District governing board, was also charged with ballot harvesting in the same primary election.
Fuentes pleaded guilty to one count of ballot abuse and was sentenced in October to 30 days in jail and two years’ probation.