Thousands of Arizona voters caught up in a state record-keeping error could lose voting rights

The fallout continues over an Arizona record-keeping error that could now cost thousands of voters some of their voting rights. That's despite the attorney general’s opinion saying they should remain fully eligible to vote.

Jen Fifield reports Maricopa County will allow these voters to only vote in federal elections — unless they provide proof of citizenship. And Pinal County is taking a different path.

This all goes back to a problem elections officials uncovered last summer, when they realized about 200,000 longtime Arizona voters had not been asked to provide proof of U.S. citizenship when they registered to vote — even though it's a requirement in Arizona.

Ever since, the status of those voters has been up in the air. Fifield has been covering it all and joined The Show to discuss.

Jen Fifield

Full conversation

LAUREN GILGER: Hi there, Jen.

JEN FIFIELD: Hi, good morning.

GILGER: Good morning. Thanks for coming back on. So how many people might it affect?

FIFIELD: Well, we know that the error initially affected roughly 200,000 longtime residents statewide. We know that thousands have now provided their proof of citizenship after receiving letters from their Recorder's Office telling them that they needed to. We don't know how many are left. I would guess it's maybe half of that, so still thousands of voters need to prove this.

GILGER: OK, so explain this for a moment back up for us, Jen, because this is complicated. This is about proof of citizenship. These voters didn't provide that, but they also weren't asked to. So that means they could vote in some elections, not others, right?

FIFIELD: Correct. So if they don't provide proof of citizenship, if you don't provide proof of citizenship and you live here, you can only vote in federal elections because our state law says, well, to vote here in our state elections, you have to show that. So these people found out that they had never been asked that or maybe they had, but they have no record on it in the MVD records in our state.

GILGER: OK, so Attorney General Kris Mayes issued an opinion on this because Secretary of State Adrian Fontes had asked for it, right, heading into and after the last election.

What did Mayes say here? What was this opinion about?

FIFIELD: So Mayes pretty much said, well, we, unless we know for sure that someone is not a citizen, if we get proof that we know they're not a citizen, then we can remove them from the rules or change their eligibility to vote. But if we don't, if we just don't have any documents, we're not allowed to change their status. So she told counties, do not change these voter status even though we don't think we have documentation for them. Leave them as full ballot voters.

GILGER: OK, so she's sort of flipping it on its head. She's saying reporters have to confirm a voter is not a citizen, not the other way around.

FIFIELD: Correct.

GILGER: So now we've got two major counties kind of defying this. What exactly are they saying they're going to do in Maricopa and Pinal counties?

FIFIELD: Maricopa County, according to documents I got, are still telling voters, if they call in these voters, that they need to prove their citizenship or they will, they will be made federal only voters. They gave them 90 days. That's right before the ballots go out for jurisdictional elections that are in November this year.

And in Pinal County they're keeping their status as is, this is our neighbor in Pinal, but they're saying if you go to update your record though, if you make change of address, change of party, you're going to need to give us these documents or we're suspending your entire, you know, eligibility. You won't be able to vote at all.

GILGER: Wow, OK. Why did they say they're doing that despite this opinion from the AG?

FIFIELD: Well, it has been confusing for months now. Counties have been trying to figure out what to do, and originally the Secretary of State's Office was, you know, kind of what Maricopa is saying, we need to make them federal-only voters. It's been confusing and while her opinion is out there, it's not binding. So counties can ask their county attorneys, what do you think we should do?

GILGER: OK, so they're coming up with different conclusions in different places, essentially.

FIFIELD: Yeah, correct.

GILGER: Have either of the county recorders in these two counties responded to you about this?

FIFIELD: In Maricopa County, Justin Heap and his office did not respond to my latest request. That's why I went through and got public records on it. And Pinal, the recorder, Dana Lewis, is being very open about her legal opinion, and she has from the beginning saying that this is what she feels is best.

GILGER: OK, So Jen, as we said, this was a big deal last summer, just months before the 2024 elections. Lots of people weren't sure if they were going to be able to vote, who was counted in this, if it was me, if it wasn't me, that kind of thing. They were allowed to fully vote at the time, right?

FIFIELD: Yes, so we had a Supreme Court decision come through. Everyone kind of sided on the same side back then and said, you know, we should let these voters vote. The election is coming up. Let's just figure this out after that. And that's what's happening now. It's a full year later and we're still trying to figure it out.

GILGER: Right. We're still trying to figure it out. So run down for us. You said that there have been notices sent out. Some voters have in fact come back and confirmed their proof of citizenship, but that hasn't happened with all of them. What's this process look like?

FIFIELD: Well, it's just sending a letter in the mail. You know how it is. You don't check your mail for sometimes, I don't know, weeks, sometimes people don't check it at all, so it's just a letter in the mail and it's a blank envelope from the Recorder's Office. These are voters who have lived here since before 1996. That's when they got their driver's license. And registered to vote after 2004.

So these are mostly, you know, people who are over 45, and they should be checking their mail, but some aren't or some just aren't, haven't provided the documents yet.

GILGER: Right, so we don't even know exactly how many people have provided that proof of citizenship at this point.

FIFIELD: Right. The Secretary of State's Office isn't tracking it. It's all up to the counties.

GILGER: Wow, OK. Voting advocates, I understand, are not happy about this as well. Groups like All Voting is Local, the League of Women Voters, what do they have to say?

FIFIELD: Well, they're just saying that you are doing a disservice to voters if you change their status. These people are longtime voters in the state. Everyone agreed back when this happened, that these were likely citizens. They just had never been asked to show their birth certificate.

So they're upset right now that there's different treatment for voters across the state. The League said they're exposing themselves to costly litigation, kind of hinting that this might become a legal issue soon.

GILGER: So do we anticipate some kind of scenario, Jen, when we get to the next election and some voters get a ballot that, you know, isn't full?

FIFIELD: Oh yes, that's a definite possibility, especially in these upcoming November elections in Maricopa County because they're changing them to federal only voters soon at the end of September. Everyone should be checking their voter status before that, before the ballots go out for the local elections.

GILGER: You could very well have some voters getting this, you know, only, only federal ballot and saying where are the rest of the races, right?

FIFIELD: Well, the thing is, the November election is just state and local elections, so they just won't get a ballot in the mail. So, yeah, they're going to be maybe looking for their city council race or whatever it is and saying where, you know, where is it?

GILGER: What's the attorney general saying about this at this point, Jen? Is she planning to do anything about these two major counties, some of the biggest in the state, changing the way they're going to do it?

FIFIELD: I will say she's been watching this issue very carefully, but, and she hasn't commented to me that she's going to do anything about the desperate treatment across the state, but she did say she's going to be looking at the legal opinion of each of these counties.