Judge demands Arizona to disclose list of registered voters with questionable citizenship status

October 31, 2024 TruthUSA

Arizona’s secretary of state is required to disclose a list of up to 218,000 voters affected by a glitch at the Motor Vehicles Division.

A judge has instructed Arizona to make public a list of registered voters whose citizenship status was not verified due to a coding glitch in the state’s record-keeping system.

Despite concerns about potential harassment, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes has been ordered to provide the list by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott A. Blaney.

In a ruling dated Oct. 31, Judge Blaney directed Fontes to release the list to Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona, also known as EZAZ.org, a conservative watchdog group that initiated a public records lawsuit to access the information.

A lawsuit, filed on behalf of EZAZ.org by America First Legal (AFL), aims to ensure transparency and the ability for county recorders to verify voters’ citizenship status.

“A majority of Arizonans no longer trust the election system of our state. One of the reasons is the lack of transparency from our state’s elected officials,” said James Rogers, senior counsel for AFL, in an Oct. 31 statement. “It is unfortunate that Secretary Fontes so aggressively opposed our common-sense efforts to help restore trust in our state’s election system. This was a case we never should have needed to file.”

The list, containing as many as 218,000 voters, includes individuals who did not provide proof of citizenship documents when registering, due to a flaw in the data systems managed by Arizona’s Motor Vehicles Division (MVD) and the secretary of state’s office.

This order is a result of Arizona’s ongoing efforts to comply with the voter eligibility requirements of Proposition 200, a law enforced in 2004 that demands proof of citizenship for voters in state and local elections.

According to a press release from Fontes’s office, the coding error impacts voters from all political affiliations, including approximately 79,000 Republicans, 61,000 Democrats, and 76,000 individuals affiliated with other parties. Despite swearing under penalty of perjury that they are U.S. citizens, these individuals were mistakenly marked as having provided citizenship documentation.

The judge has set a deadline of Nov. 4 for Fontes to provide the list to EZAZ.org, with restrictions on how the information can be used. The watchdog group is prohibited from contacting any individuals on the list until Nov. 6 or sharing personally identifiable data with third parties, except for Arizona county recorders, the Legislature’s leadership, and members of the House and Senate Elections Committees.

In response to concerns about potential harassment, Fontes argued against releasing the list.

Despite Fontes’s arguments, the judge emphasized that Arizona’s public records law presumes disclosure unless there is a clear threat to the state’s interests or individual privacy.

“Thus, the public official seeking to withhold public records from disclosure bears the burden of overcoming the presumption favoring disclosure,” the judge wrote, noting that EZAZ.org has a history of following public engagement standards and has not misused sensitive voter data in the past.

Expert testimony regarding election-related threats was dismissed by the court as speculative and biased.

In response to the ruling, a spokesperson for Fontes’s office stated that they are reviewing the decision and considering their options.

Previously, Fontes’s office confirmed that the affected voters are still eligible to vote in all races for the upcoming general election in 2024. The Arizona Supreme Court also upheld their eligibility for full-ballot voting status in a decision on Sept. 20, agreeing with Fontes’s guidance.

The Arizona voter registration database now correctly identifies individuals requiring proof of citizenship, and election officials will contact them about their status after the Nov. 5 election if needed, Fontes’s office stated in a Sept. 30 announcement.

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