HARRISBURG, Pa. — A yearlong investigation into suspected fraudulent voter registration forms submitted ahead of last year’s presidential election has resulted in criminal charges against six street canvassers and the man who led their work in Pennsylvania.
The allegations of fraud appear to have been motivated by the defendants’ desire to make money and keep their jobs, rather than an effort to influence election results, said Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, a Republican.
Guillermo Sainz, 33, described by prosecutors as the director of a company’s registration drives in Pennsylvania, was charged with three counts of solicitation of registration—a state law that prohibits offering money to reach registration quotas. A message seeking comment was left on a number associated with Sainz, who lives in Arizona. He did not have a lawyer listed in court records.
The six canvassers face charges including unsworn falsification, tampering with public records, forgery, and violations of Pennsylvania election law. These charges relate to activities in three Republican-leaning Pennsylvania counties: 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 any election for any one candidate or party,” Sunday said in a news release. Prosecutors noted that the forms included registrations for all party affiliations.
According to a court affidavit filed with the criminal charges on Friday, investigators said Sainz, 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.”
Field+Media Corps, based in Mesa, Arizona, had stated 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 for the CEO, Francisco Heredia. At the time of this report, the Field+Media Corps website did not appear to be operative.
Field+Media was funded by Everybody Votes, an initiative aimed at improving voter registration rates in communities of color. The affidavit noted that Everybody Votes “fully cooperated” with the investigation and that its contract with Field+Media prohibited payments on a per-registration basis.
“The investigation confirmed that we hold our partners to the highest standards of quality control when collecting, handling and delivering voter registration applications,” Everybody Votes said in a statement emailed by a spokesperson.
Sainz, who managed Pennsylvania operations from May to October 2024, is accused of paying canvassers based on how many signatures they collected. The police affidavit states that Sainz told agents with the attorney general’s office earlier this month that he was unaware of any canvassers being paid extra hours if they reached a target number of forms.
“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,'” investigators wrote.
One canvasser admitted in the affidavit that she created fake forms to boost her pay and believed others did the same. Another confessed that most of the registration forms he collected were “not real.” A third reported that when she realized she was not going to reach her daily quota, “she would make up names and information,” police wrote, “due to fear of losing her job.”
The investigation began in late October 2024 after election workers in Lancaster flagged about 2,500 voter registration forms for potential fraud. Authorities noted the forms appeared to contain false names, suspicious handwriting, questionable signatures, incorrect addresses, and other problematic details.
In a separate but related investigation, authorities in Monroe County filed voter registration fraud charges late Friday against three canvassers who worked for Field+Media Corps last year. All three defendants were charged with forgery, perjury, unsworn falsification, tampering with public records, identity theft, and violations of election law.
The allegation of criminal activity related to the election emerged as the battleground state was considered pivotal to the presidential race. Then-candidate Donald Trump seized on the news during a campaign event, declaring there was “cheating” involving “2,600” votes. However, the issue in Lancaster concerned about 2,500 suspected fraudulent voter registration forms, not ballots or votes.
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