WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, America First Legal (AFL) sent legal demand letters to all 15 Arizona County Recorders demanding they take action to remove foreign citizens from their voter rolls. AFL sent the letter on behalf of its clients, Arizona Free Enterprise Club and Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona, and demands that election officials fulfill their legal obligations to prevent aliens from voting. It warns that if they fail to do so, AFL will pursue legal action on behalf of its clients.
Last month, AFL sent all 50 states a plan to use existing federal laws to prevent foreign nationals from illegally voting in American elections.
Yesterday’s letter to all 15 of Arizona’s county recorders demands that the recorders immediately start using existing federal law to verify the citizenship of all of Arizona’s federal-only voters. Arizona election officials have a mandatory obligation to ensure that foreign nationals are removed from their voter rolls and that they use the available access to federal databases.
For background, Arizona law requires proof of citizenship to register to vote. However, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that in federal elections, States cannot impose additional voter registration requirements beyond what the federal voter registration form requires, which only requires registrants to check a box affirming they are a citizen. Thus, the Supreme Court held that because the form does not require documentary proof of citizenship, Arizona cannot require such proof when someone registers to vote in federal elections. Therefore, if someone registering to vote in Arizona refuses to provide proof of citizenship, the State is required to allow that person to vote in Arizona’s federal elections (unless the State discovers the individual is an ineligible voter), but that person is not allowed to vote in State and local elections.
Astoundingly, as of April 1, 2024, there were 35,273 registered voters in Arizona who had failed to provide proof of their citizenship and were therefore entitled to vote in federal (but not State and local) races. For comparison, the 2020 presidential election in Arizona was decided by only 10,457 votes.
Arizona law requires county recorders to perform monthly list maintenance to confirm the citizenship of federal-only registered voters. The list maintenance law requires county recorders to consult three specific databases (SAVE, the Social Security Administration (SSA) database, and NAPHSIS) to check the citizenship of registrants. However, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes has never negotiated with the relevant agencies to get access to those databases for list maintenance. Because of this, county recorders are not performing the necessary list maintenance to verify the citizenship of federal-only voters.
Fortunately, as AFL’s letter points out, county recorders can verify the citizenship of voter registrants in another way. Two federal statutes that have been in effect for nearly thirty years, 8 U.S.C. § 1373(c) and 8 U.S.C. § 1644, allow State and local officials to obtain information about the citizenship or immigration status of any individual for any lawful purpose.
The letter gives the county recorders a week–until July 23–to confirm that they have submitted citizenship information requests to DHS about all federal-only voters registered in their counties. If county recorders fail to do so, the letter threatens legal action to compel them to fulfill their statutory duties.
Statement from Gene Hamilton, America First Legal Executive Director:
“The integrity of our elections now potentially hinges upon millions of illegal aliens simply checking a box on a piece of paper that claims they are U.S. citizens, and then whatever ballot they would receive for use is available to be cast by leftist activists to influence the outcome of elections. This is lunacy. Every state in the nation must ensure only citizens vote in elections, and they have the tools to do so. We expect swift and decisive legal action for our clients,” Gene Hamilton said.
Read the letters here.
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Photo credit: Adobe Stock Images / Alexander Berdyugin
