Arizona court holds hearing over voter registration issue | 2024 Election
PHOENIX - With Election Day just over a week away, an issue with voter rolls headed to court on the morning of Oct. 28 as a conservative group demands the Arizona Secretary of State's Office to release the names of thousands of voters who have been improperly registered to vote.
The Arizona Supreme Court previously ruled the impacted voters can vote on a full ballot that includes federal, state, and local elections.
At the time of the high court's ruling, about 97,000 voters were thought to be impacted, but that number later increased to about 218,000, after a new set of about 120,000 Arizonans were found to have been impacted.
The voters were reportedly improperly registered because a database used by ADOT's Motor Vehicle Division did not account for people not needing to show proof of citizenship before 1996. Those voters were labeled as having provided proof of citizenship.
Under a 2004 Arizona law, voters were required to provide proof of citizenship to vote in state and local elections.
The Arizona Secretary of State's Office says the impacted voters include 79,000 Republicans, 61,000 Democrats, and 76,000 voters registered to other parties.
In response to the demands made by the conservative group, the Secretary of State's Office says that providing a list of the people affected would create confusion, chaos, uncertainty, and consternation among the public.
‘Single most busy time’
The conservative group isn't buying that these nearly 220,000 voters are all U.S. citizens and it wants proof. The only problem is, Arizona's Secretary of State Adrian Fontes doesn’t have proof.
The group is called Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona, which is tied to Stephen Miller, a former senior advisor to former President Donald Trump.
To put it simply, the group doesn't believe the county recorders are doing their job.
They want to make sure non-citizens are removed from the voter rolls just days out from the election by getting the names and sending them to the county recorders for verification. It says its intention is not to post the names publicly.
Fontes says he believes the vast majority of these voters are U.S. citizens, but he doesn’t have proof. Not only does he not have the list the MVD does, he doesn’t have a solid number of how many people have not shown proof of citizenship.
"We first got a number that was 345,000-ish. It went down to 148,000-ish. Then we got a number that was around 98,000. And then suddenly a new list wholly and completely separate of 349,000-ish popped up. Once that started getting worked a little bit, we ended up with this more or less 218,000. But none of those numbers can be depended on," Fontes said.
It could be more than 200,000 – it could be less.
He doesn’t have the resources to figure that out before the election, but more importantly, he said he doesn’t want blood on his hands if voter registration vigilantes decide to go after these people thinking they’re undocumented immigrants.
"These folks are in the middle of an election right now. This is the single most busy time that any of these people will see in any 24-month cycle. Early voting is underway in the most robust manner possible. It would be virtually impossible for us to be able to do what the plaintiffs are asking us to do because we don't have control. B, we don't have a list. C, we don't have the resources. I'm scared to death for my voters," Fontes said.
Remember, even if these folks have not shown proof of citizenship, they are still allowed to vote in federal elections, just not the state and local ones.
Regardless, the judge has said Arizona law favors disclosure, so it’s the secretary who bears the burden of showing why he doesn’t have to disclose the names.
We'll see how the judge rules, but it could be a tough situation for those nearly 220,000 voters, and it goes to show you how tense this election cycle is.
While ADOT isn't named in the lawsuit, it clarifies that election officials maintain the voter registration lists and that MVD does not verify voter registration status.
A statement from Bill Lamoreaux of ADOT reads:
"MVD provided two datasets to the Secretary of State’s Office (SOS). The first one, provided on Sept. 10, 2024, included individuals with an active credential who had a pre-Oct. 1, 1996 ID and a subsequent duplicate. The second one, provided on Sept. 20, 2024, included all individuals with an active credential who had a pre-Oct. 1, 1996 ID and a subsequent renewal or reinstatement. These datasets would allow the SOS to run comparisons against the voter registration database to determine how many individuals on the lists are registered voters. MVD cannot speak to what processes the SOS might be using to verify, or narrow, the list of impacted voters. ADOT MVD is in the process of reviewing previous and current procedures and policies as part of the audit ordered by Governor Hobbs on Oct. 18, and the full report will be made available upon completion."