A new federal lawsuit by a legal foundation with strong ties to former President Donald Trump alleges that all 15 Arizona counties “failed” to purge foreign nationals from their voter rolls, leaving the state's elections vulnerable to foreign interference.
On Wednesday, America First Legal Litigation The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Arizona, alleging that the counties and their respective recorders “failed to take the steps required by law to remove aliens from the voter rolls,” violating the rights of foreign residents.
Arizona has a unique system that allows prospective voters in federal elections to register using a federal form that doesn't require proof of citizenship, but anyone who wants to vote in a state or local election must provide proof.
As BlazeNews previously reported, the U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld this dichotomous system.
According to the new lawsuit, county recorders are required by state law to maintain voter rolls monthly to verify that people who register to vote on federal forms are in fact U.S. citizens. County recorders must also provide the state attorney general with a list and application of all registered voters who “have not presented sufficient evidence of citizenship,” the lawsuit says, citing state law.
The lawsuit claims that all 15 county recorders have “failed” in this regard and that these failures have “caused voters to lose confidence in the integrity of our election system.”
The lawsuit argues that the best way to verify that a registered voter is a U.S. citizen is to request a citizenship status verification from the Department of Homeland Security under Sections 1373 and 1644 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
“This is about cracking down using all our legal powers to ensure that foreign nationals are not on the voters' roll or voting in any elections,” AFL general secretary Gene Hamilton told The Blaze News in a recent interview.
The lawsuit further alleges that the current process is “discriminatory” against naturalized citizens, who are subject to additional scrutiny when registering to vote. One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Yvonne Cahill, is a naturalized citizen.
“You don't have to respond to this, right?”
As Blaze News reported, early last month, America First Legal, whose chairman is Stephen Miller, a former senior adviser to President Trump, initially filed a lawsuit in state court against Maricopa County alone.
Maricopa County has a history of “using procedural maneuvers” to delay election litigation and prevent substantive hearings. press release The state of Arizona then reportedly opted to remove the lawsuit from the AFL to federal court, opening the door for lawsuits against 14 other Arizona counties. The AFL appears to have taken advantage of that opportunity.
In its lawsuit, the AFL argues that registering foreigners to vote is an urgent issue, pointing out that a recent survey found that about 1 percent of eligible voters are not U.S. citizens.
Additionally, the lawsuit claims that more than 16,000 voters in Alabama, Ohio, Texas and Virginia were recently removed from the voter rolls because they were deemed not to be citizens, although at least 2,000 of those 16,000 voted.
“We are taking emergency steps to ensure election security,” Stephen Miller told The Blaze News in a statement. “In addition to Maricopa County, we are currently suing 14 other Arizona counties that have refused to remove illegal immigrants and non-citizens from their voter rolls. America First Legal will do everything in our power to fight mass illegal immigrant voting and foreign interference in our democracy.”
The Blaze-News also reached out to all 15 Arizona county recorders for comment.
“The county is not aware of the new law,” said Josh Haywood, a spokesman for Maricopa County Recorder Steven Richer.
The Maricopa County Recorder's Office takes pride in and prioritizes maintaining an accurate and up-to-date voter roll. Under Recorder Steven Richer's leadership, maintaining the voter roll has been a top priority and we have removed over 400,000 voters from the rolls since January 2021. As an office, we will continue to strictly adhere to the law.
On behalf of Pima County Recorder Gabriela Cazares Kelly, spokesman Michael Trusen (who includes preferred pronouns in his email signature) shared with The Blaze-News a July letter Cazares Kelly wrote to the AFL.
The letter states that Cazares Kelly's office “performs daily maintenance of the list to ensure compliance with applicable federal and state laws relating to civil rights” and that “current list maintenance procedures are thorough and address many of the AFL's 'concerns'.”
“As a general rule, non-citizens do not register to vote. In the rare cases in which an ineligible person does in fact attempt to register to vote, there are safeguards and laws in place to ensure that only eligible people are able to vote,” Rep. Cazares Kelly's letter said.
In an apparent mistake, Graham County Recorder Polly Merriman sent the Blaze-News an email stating, “I don't have to respond to this, do I?” The email was addressed to “Gene.”
Yavapai County Executive Michelle Burchill declined to comment.
Recorders in Apache, Cochise, Coconino, Gila, Greenlee, La Paz, Mohave, Navajo, Pinal, Santa Cruz and Yuma counties did not respond.
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