Howard Fisher
Capitol Media Services

PHOENIX — A group in Arizona that claims there was election fraud there is unsatisfied with the answers it received to its inquiries and is now suing all 15 county election recorders, accusing them of dereliction of duty to ensure only residents could vote.
A new complaint filed Wednesday by the Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona alleges that the REC is required to perform “list management” of voter rolls under both state and federal law. More importantly, the foundation and its legal team, assembled by former adviser to President Donald Trump, are suing U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton, alleging that the REC is not complying with those laws.
They are now asking a judge to order the registrar to conduct what they say are mandatory tests, and to require the registrar to turn over to Attorney General Chris Mays a list of people who registered without providing proof of citizenship (which is legal).
Maricopa County Recorder Steven Richer, who was first sued last month, has already denied that the county is following the law.
The lawsuit was expanded after America First Legal, which represents Strong Communities, sent similar letters to 14 other county recorders demanding they follow the law in accordance with attorney James Rogers' opinion. Now the company has added them to the suit.
“The defendants ignored these requirements,” Rogers said of county officials.
“The government has failed to take the steps required by law to remove foreign nationals from the voter rolls,” he wrote in the lawsuit. “These failures have caused voters to lose confidence in the integrity of our nation's electoral system.”
But when asked Wednesday about this and other similar lawsuits, Gov. Katie Hobbs said it's the people filing the lawsuits who are creating the problem.
“As people head into this important election season with the election so close, I think it's completely unjust that they're trying to subvert the way we vote and the way Arizonans have their voices heard,” she said. “We're going to do everything we can to make sure that the procedures are upheld to ensure we have an accurate and secure election so Arizonans can participate.”
The issue concerns the National Voter Registration Act, which allows people to register to vote without the same proof of citizenship that states require on their own forms.
But those who use the federal ballot can only vote in presidential and congressional elections. At last count, more than 41,000 of Arizona's more than 4.1 million registered voters were on that list.
Rogers acknowledges that federal law allows for that, but argues that it doesn't relieve election officials of a separate affirmative duty to use other resources and databases to purge the rolls of people who aren't citizens.
“Foreigners are registered to vote,” he told Bolton.
Miller, the president of America First Legal, said the group is “fully committed to fighting mass illegal alien voting and foreign interference in our democracy.”
But the evidence cited in the voter fraud lawsuit consists solely of information about efforts in other states where election officials claim foreign voters were removed from the rolls, including situations in which Rogers said some of them actually voted.
But there's nothing in the lawsuit to suggest that noncitizens are registered to vote in Arizona, much less actually voting, and neither Strong Communities nor America First Legal responded to requests for what evidence they have.
Hobbs, on the other hand, believes that voters who vote only for the Union are not American citizens.
“These people did not have proof of citizenship documentation at the time they registered on the federal form,” she said.
“That doesn't mean they're not eligible to vote,” the governor continued, “and our system ensures that every registered voter is eligible to vote.”
That's also the assessment of the Secretary of State's office, which is not a defendant in the suit.
“The federal-only ballot is made up of groups such as Native Americans, college students and seniors who may not have easy access to proof of citizenship documentation,” said Aaron Thacker, a spokesman for the office.
Asked about the new lawsuit, Pima County Recorder Gabriela Cazares Kelly responded Wednesday with a copy of the letter she sent in July when Kelly first threatened to sue. In it, she detailed the work her office is doing to ensure everyone who registered using the federal form is eligible and, like Hobbs, questioned the basis for the accusations to the contrary.
“Reality demonstrates that, as a rule, non-citizens do not register to vote,” Cazares Kelly wrote. “In the rare cases in which an ineligible person does in fact attempt to register to vote, there are safeguards and laws in place to ensure that only those who are eligible can vote.”
Others, like Cochise County Recorder David Stevens, said he doesn't want to respond now that a lawsuit has been filed against him.
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