​Arizona registered 218,000 voters without citizenship proof — and now it’s withholding the list, lawsuit claims

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and his office are facing a lawsuit over a major voter registration scandal.

On behalf of the Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona, America First Legal filed the complaint, claiming that Fontes and his office are “illegally withholding a list from the public of over 218,000 individuals who registered to vote without providing proof of citizenship as required by law.”

AFL filed a public records request asking the secretary of state to turn over the list of individuals. According to AFL, that request was rejected.

“Rather than treating constituents with respect and decorum, their response was a bombastic tirade that invoked a bizarre conspiracy theory accusing EZAZ.org [Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona] of secretly planning to harass the voters on the list,” AFL wrote in a press release announcing the lawsuit. “There is, of course, no evidence to support Secretary Fontes’s conspiracy theory, and EZAZ.org has no intention of harassing anyone. Secretary Fontes also feebly claimed that compiling the list would be too hard for his staff. None of these excuses hold water. Fontes’s staff has already compiled the list–that’s how they know the number of affected voters. And there is no risk that these voters will be harassed–EZAZ.org’s mission is all about protecting voters.”

Additionally, AFL accused the secretary of State of refusing to share the list with county recorders, thereby “making it impossible for them to check whether these individuals are citizens.”

“Secretary Fontes’s refusal is puzzling because Arizona law requires county recorders to do monthly investigations on every registered voter who has failed to provide citizenship until the individual’s citizenship has been confirmed or disconfirmed,” AFL added.

Elon Musk responded to the AFL’s announcement, warning Arizona residents that they will face disenfranchisement.

“Citizens of Arizona, this election is your last chance before you’re disenfranchised,” he wrote in a post on X.

What’s the background?

In mid-September, Maricopa County recorder Stephen Richer announced that Arizona officials had recently discovered a decade-old “flaw” impacting every county in the state that allowed 97,000 Arizonans to register to vote without providing proof of citizenship, Blaze News previously reported.

Richer explained that since 1996, Arizona has required driver’s license applicants to provide proof of citizenship, and since 2004, the state has required proof of citizenship to vote a full ballot — both federal and local.

He noted that the “vast majority” of voter applicants have provided proof of citizenship since 2004.

“Unfortunately, the way the system was designed allowed for one group of voters through the cracks,” Richer remarked.

That group included Arizona residents who obtained a driver’s license before 1996 and, therefore, did not submit proof of citizenship and later requested a renewal or replacement license.

“If a driver received a license prior to 1996, he did not have a documented proof of citizenship on file. But then, if he got a duplicate license (e.g. in the case of losing a license), the issuance date would be updated in the statewide voter registration’s interface with MVD,” Richer stated.

“Then, if that person went to register, when the counties went to confirm if the person has documented proof of citizenship, the interface between the statewide voter registration system and MVD would yield a date after 1996 and therefore say that the voter had documented proof of citizenship on file with the MVD,” he added. “This flaw has existed since 2004. In every county. Across the state.”

Richer filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of State’s Office to determine whether the impacted individuals should be allowed to vote in the upcoming local elections.

“It is my position that these registrants have not satisfied Arizona’s documented proof of citizenship law,” he wrote on X, “and therefore can only vote a ‘FED ONLY’ ballot.”

“The Secretary argues that it is too close to the election to implement such a change and that it would be unduly burdensome on voters and deprive them of their voting rights,” he continued. “That is why we are going to the courts. To get a clear answer.”

On September 20, the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously decided to allow the impacted residents to vote a full ballot, Blaze News previously reported.

However, as the days passed, the Secretary of State’s Office discovered additional registered voters without proof of citizenship who had slipped through the cracks.

On September 30, the Secretary of State’s Office issued a press release stating that the previously reported 97,000 impacted voters was closer to approximately 218,000. It noted that the court’s decision still stands.

“This data set includes approximately 79,000 Republicans, 61,000 Democrats, and 76,000 Other Party (OTH), bringing the total of impacted individuals to approximately 218,000,” the office said.

The Secretary of State’s Office told Blaze News that it does not comment on pending litigation.

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