Arizona county defends restoring 98,000 with unconfirmed citizenship to voter rolls

The Maricopa County Recorder's Office is standing by its choice to restore voter registration status of individuals affected by a glitch that impacted 218,000 voters.

"Maricopa County did not receive a complete list from the Secretary of State's Office regarding who may have been impacted by the MVD data oversight," the Recorder's Office said in a statement to Fox News in part. 

"However, if impacted voters submitted a new voter registration form after the oversight was found, they appeared in our system as needing to provide DPOC upon their new registration form being processed. These voters were contacted individually to let them know their registration was incomplete. However, after further consideration, the decision was made to fully restore those voters from the not registered status, only if they were previously an existing, registered voter," the statement read.

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Now, these voters can participate in the upcoming election as they did before, the recorder's office said.

"Additionally, we know roughly 2,000 voters who were impacted in the MVD data oversight submitted voter registration updates and some of those may have been contacted about providing DPOC," the statement read.

The county recorder added, "but since then, regardless of if they have provided that additional information, they have since been restored their original status for this election."

Arizona's high court ruled last Thursday the county must provide a conservative watchdog group with a list of noncitizens currently registered to vote after a lawsuit was lobbed against the county last year.

During an evidentiary hearing, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes testified that a system error had affected approximately 218,000 registered voters, the court document states.

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The order notes that Fontes acknowledged having a partial list of about 98,000 voters who have not confirmed their proof of citizenship but stated that no complete list of all 218,000 affected voters exists. Fontes attributed a government press release's mention of a complete list to "hasty drafting" and unclear language. He also claimed that the Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) had not provided him with any list containing personal information for the additional voters potentially lacking sufficient documentation.

However, the court concluded his testimony was inconsistent; Fontes initially denied possessing the list of 98,000 voters before amending his statement.

"His testimony suggested that he lacked detailed familiarity with the AZSOS's [Arizona Secretary of State] efforts with regard to the issue and with regard to the records in the possession of the AZSOS related to the 218,000 individuals," the court document states.

The decision comes after AFL filed suit on behalf of the nonprofit group Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona and Yvonne Cahill, a registered voter and naturalized citizen in Maricopa County.

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AFL had previously given Maricopa County one week to address the alleged noncitizens on its voter rolls.

The lawsuit claims that, as of April 2024, more than 35,000 registered voters in Arizona had not provided proof of citizenship, limiting them to voting only in federal races, according to the Arizona Secretary of State's Office.

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, through his attorney, stated that he would not take any action, "citing, among other things, concerns for the safety of voters, and concerns about the accuracy of the list," and claimed his office is already complying with the law, the Arizona high court document read.

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