Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and his office lawsuit over a major voter registration scandal.
On behalf of the Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona, America First Legal filed a complaint alleging that Fontes and his firm “registered more than 210,000 people to vote without providing proof of citizenship as required by law. “We have unlawfully withheld a list of more than 8,000 individuals from the public.” ”
The AFL filed a public records request with the Secretary of State asking for a list of individuals. The AFL said the request was refused.
“Instead of treating voters with respect and courtesy, their response was a bombastic rant bringing up bizarre conspiracy theories against EZAZ.org.” [Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona] “They were secretly planning to harass voters on the list,” the AFL wrote in the article. press release Announcement of lawsuit. “Of course, there is no evidence to support Director Fontes' conspiracy theory, and EZAZ.org has no intention of harassing anyone. Director Fontes also weakly claimed that creating the list was too difficult for his staff. None of these excuses hold true,” Fontes staff said. already We created a list so we could see how many voters were affected. And these voters don't risk being harassed – EZAZ.org's mission is to: protection Voters. ”
Additionally, the AFL charged that the Secretary of State refused to share the list with county recorders, making it “impossible to verify whether these individuals were citizens.”
“Secretary Fontes’ refusal is puzzling because Arizona law requires county records to be reviewed monthly until citizenship is confirmed or not for all registered voters who have not offered citizenship.” This is because it requires public officials to do so,” the AFL added.
Elon Musk reacted to the AFL's announcement, warning Arizonans that they face disenfranchisement.
“Arizonaans, this election is your last chance before you are disenfranchised,” he wrote. post With X.
What is your background?
In mid-September, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer announced Blaze News recently reported that Arizona officials had recently allowed 97,000 Arizonans to register to vote without providing proof of citizenship, a 10-year-old move affecting every county in the state. It was previously reported that a defect had been discovered.
Richer explained that Arizona has required proof of citizenship from driver's license applicants since 1996, and since 2004, the state has required proof of citizenship for all votes on both federal and local ballots. I'm looking for.
He noted that the “vast majority” of voter applicants have submitted proof of citizenship since 2004.
“Unfortunately, the way this system was designed allowed some groups of voters to slip through the cracks,” Richer said.
This group included Arizona residents who obtained a driver's license before 1996 but did not provide proof of citizenship and later requested a license renewal or replacement.
“If a driver obtained a license before 1996, they did not have documentation of citizenship on file. If obtained, the publication date will be updated in the “statewide voter registration and MVD interface,'' Richer said.
“Then, if that person goes to register, when the county goes to see if that person has documented evidence of citizenship, the interface between the statewide voter registration system and the MVD would derive a date after 1996 and therefore say the voter had documented proof of citizenship as recorded in the MVD,'' he added. “This flaw has been around since 2004. It's in every county, across the state.”
Mr. Richer filed a lawsuit with the Secretary of State's Office to determine whether affected individuals should be allowed to vote in the next local election.
“It is my position that these registrants do not meet the documented proof of citizenship law in Arizona and therefore can only vote 'FED-only'” regarding X, he wrote. .
“The Secretary contends that such changes would be too close to the election and would unfairly burden and disenfranchise voters,” he continued. “That's why we're going to court. To get clear answers.”
On Sept. 20, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled unanimously to allow all affected residents to vote, Blaze News previously reported.
But as the days went by, the Secretary of State's Office discovered that more registered voters without proof of citizenship were slipping in.
On September 30, the Secretary of State's Office issued the following statement: press release He said the number of affected voters is closer to about 218,000 than the previously reported 97,000. He pointed out that the court's decision is still valid.
“This dataset includes approximately 79,000 Republicans, 61,000 Democrats, and 76,000 other party (OTH) individuals, for a total of approximately 218,000 affected individuals. become a person,” the department said.
The Secretary of State's Office told Blaze News it does not comment on pending litigation.
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