Leaders in South county are divided over ending voting by mail

SAN LUIS, Ariz. – A recently released documentary about alleged fraud in the 2020 presidential election is prompting debate here among politicians in south Yuma County about whether the state law that allows for mailed-in ballots should be repealed.

David Lara, who represents the south county on the Yuma Union High School Board, and Gary Snyder, a San Luis resident running a Republican for a state Senate law, want to end voting by mail. Such a proposal is also favored by some state lawmakers.

“Electoral fraud is not going to be stopped completely, but I believe ending voting by mail could reduce it by more than 90%,” Lara said. “Fortunately there are legislators in the state who are fighting for approval to end mail-in voting.”

But Democrat leaders in the south county, among them Supervisor Tony Reyes, discount the likelihood of mailed ballots being used to cast to fraudulent votes. Reyes notes that Republican as well as Democrat voters make use of voting by mail.

“They are looking for a problem where it’s not there,” Reyes said. “A few votes don’t change the outcome of an election. The electoral system works well, but they don’t like it because it’s not convenient when they lose. My advice is that they work harder to

win elections.”

Critics say voting by mail allows for electoral fraud by enabling individual campaigns to collect the ballots from voters and using them to vote for the campaigns’ candidates, in a process known as “ballot harvesting” or “ballot abuse.”

Last year, two San Luis residents, Alma Yadria Juarez and Guillermina Fuentes, were charged with ballot harvesting, a Class 1 misdemeanor under state law, in the city’s 2020 primary election. Juarez pleaded guilty to the charge under an agreement with prosecutors.

Fuentes, a former San Luis mayor and city councilwoman, and current board member of the Gadsden Elementary School District, has pleaded not guilty.

A woman identified only as a San Luis resident said ballot harvesting has taken place in that city in “2,000 Mules,” a documentary film that alleges Demoratic-aligned individuals illegally collected and deposited ballots in drop boxes in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the 2020 presidential election.

Produced by Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative political commentator and author, and the organization True the Vote, the film has been criticized by some media organizations that say it’s based on incorrect assumptions and improper analysis of data.

Lara and Snyder recently screened the documentary in Yuma and plan to show it in San Luis soon.

Martin Porchas, a Yuma County supervisor and former president of the Democratic Central Committee in the county, says ending voting by mail would deprive many people of their right to vote.

“For several decades in Arizona, we have been able to vote by mail and that has helped to bring about more participation, including by Republicans who have voted by mail. The system has worked and many people who can’t go out to vote (on election day) have benefited from it, but the fear among Republicans is of continuing to lose seats in government,” Porchas said.

“All the criticisms of the electoral systems are coming from the failure of Trump to get re-elected. I haven’t seen the documentary, but even before the election, he was already talking about fraud.”

Lara referred to the guilty plea by Juarez and charges against Fuentes as proof that electoral fraud is occurring.

Like Porchas, Reyes says he fears that ending voting by mail would bring about lower participation by legal voters in elections.