A comprehensive, yearlong investigation into suspected fraudulent voter registration forms in Pennsylvania has culminated in criminal charges against six street canvassers and their leader. The probe, initiated following concerns about irregularities in voter registration submissions ahead of the 2024 presidential election, uncovered a scheme primarily driven by financial incentives rather than political motives.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, a Republican, announced the charges on Friday, emphasizing that the alleged misconduct was motivated by the defendants’ desire to earn money and maintain their employment, not by an attempt to influence election outcomes. “We are confident that the motive behind these crimes was personal financial gain, and not a conspiracy or organized effort to tip any election for any one candidate or party,” Sunday stated in a public release. The fraudulent activity spanned multiple counties in Pennsylvania, specifically York, Lancaster, and Berks — areas known to lean Republican — but the forged registration forms reportedly included voters of all party affiliations.
At the center of the charges is Guillermo Sainz, 33, who prosecutors describe as the director of a company’s voter registration drives in Pennsylvania. Sainz faces three counts of solicitation of registration, a violation of state law that prohibits offering monetary rewards to employees for reaching voter registration quotas. Although attempts to contact him for comment were unsuccessful, court records indicate that Sainz resides in Arizona and currently lacks legal representation.
The six canvassers working under Sainz are charged with a range of offenses, including unsworn falsification, tampering with public records, forgery, and violations of Pennsylvania election law. According to a court affidavit filed alongside the charges, Sainz was employed by Field+Media Corps, a company that coordinated voter registration efforts in the state. Investigators allege that Sainz implemented unlawful financial incentives and exerted pressure on canvassers to meet company goals, which in turn encouraged some employees to fabricate and submit fake registration forms to increase their earnings.
Field+Media Corps, headquartered in Mesa, Arizona, had previously expressed pride in its work to expand voter participation. Last year, the company stated it had no knowledge of any problematic registration forms. When approached for comment following the announcement of charges, Field+Media’s CEO, Francisco Heredia, was not immediately available. Furthermore, the company’s website appeared to be inactive at the time of reporting.
Field+Media was funded by Everybody Votes, an organization dedicated to improving voter registration rates in communities of color. In a statement, Everybody Votes confirmed it fully cooperated with the investigation and emphasized that its contract with Field+Media explicitly prohibited payments based on the number of registrations collected. “The investigation confirmed that we hold our partners to the highest standards of quality control when collecting, handling and delivering voter registration applications,” the organization said in an email statement.
Sainz managed the company’s operations in Pennsylvania from May to October 2024. The police affidavit revealed that he compensated canvassers based on the volume of signatures they gathered. However, when questioned by investigators earlier this month, Sainz denied knowledge of any canvassers receiving additional pay for meeting or exceeding registration targets. “Sainz had to be asked the question multiple times before he stated he was not aware of this and that ‘everyone was an hourly worker,’” the affidavit noted.
Testimonies from the canvassers themselves painted a troubling picture of the pressure to meet quotas. One canvasser admitted to fabricating registration forms in order to increase her pay and believed that other employees engaged in similar practices. Another stated that most of the registration forms he collected were “not real,” while a third confessed that when she feared she would not meet her daily quota, she would invent names and information out of fear of losing her job.
The investigation was triggered in late October 2024 after election workers in Lancaster County flagged approximately 2,500 voter registration forms suspected of being fraudulent. The forms reportedly contained false names, suspicious handwriting, questionable signatures, incorrect addresses, and other inconsistencies that raised red flags. Authorities stressed that these were issues with registration forms, not actual ballots or votes cast.
The discovery of potential fraud in such a critical battleground state added fuel to an already contentious election environment. Then-presidential candidate Donald Trump seized on the news, claiming at a campaign event that there was “cheating” involving “2,600” votes. However, officials clarified that the matter involved suspected fraudulent voter registration forms rather than votes themselves.
This case underscores the complexities and