Judge backs America First Legal bid to secure list of 218K voters without citizenship proof

America First Legal (AFL) won its lawsuit against Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) on Thursday over 218,000 voters who were incorrectly registered as providing proof of U.S. citizenship.

The Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County ruled on Thursday that Fontes must provide the list of more than 218,000 voters who did not provide proof of U.S. citizenship by Monday.

"Defendants shall release to Plaintiff no later than noon on Monday, November 4, 2024, the original list of approximately 98,000 Affected Voters as specifically identified in Richer v. Fontes," the court order reads.

"Defendants shall release to Plaintiff no later than noon on Monday, November 4, 2024, any other datasets, compilation of information, lists, or communications from MVD containing personally identifying information (PII) about Affected Voters," the court added.

AFL senior legal counsel James Rogers said in a statement Thursday: “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.

"When Secretary Fontes discovered the glitch that allowed 218,000 individuals to register without providing proof of citizenship, he should have immediately shared the list of affected individuals with Arizona’s county recorders, who are in charge of verifying the citizenship of voters. Instead, he has jealously guarded the list, refusing to share it with anyone. This suit was about restoring transparency and ensuring that county recorders can do their jobs by verifying the citizenship of voters. 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.”

AFL sued Fontes earlier this month, after the secretary of state’s office said that an additional 120,000 Arizona residents were found to have been placed on the state's voter rolls as providing proof that they are U.S. citizens, despite the fact that they had not done so.

Approximately 79,000 Republicans, 61,000 Democrats, and 76,000 Other Party members have been affected.

The secretary's announcement came two weeks after he explained that there was an error in state systems that labeled roughly 98,000 voters as having provided documented proof of U.S. citizenship when they had not done so.

Arizona is a state with the unusual situation of bifurcated elections, in which residents who provide proof of U.S. citizenship can vote in all elections while the others may vote only in federal elections, resulting in ballots cast by voters who haven’t proven their U.S. citizenship.

AFL argued in its lawsuit that the secretary of state’s office illegally withheld the list of 218,000 voters who have not provided citizenship proof. Fontes' office rejected a public records request for the list and county recorders have also not received the list, despite state law requiring the local offices to investigate voters registered without citizenship proof.