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Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, said liberals “attempted to cause chaos” in the 2024 election by canceling 20,000 voter registrations in Maricopa County on the final day of the 2024 election. He made baseless claims online. It is unclear whether any organization has delivered so many forms, but experts say the amount can be handled by election offices.

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Maricopa County — Arizona’s most populous county and the fourth most populous in the United States — Key swing states targeted for misinformation after 2020 election The importance of deciding As we wrote, the winner of the presidential election.

Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump continues to spread misinformation about Maricopa County, accusing county officials of conducting a “rigged election” in 2020.

In June, President Trump falsely suggested that U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake lost the 2022 gubernatorial race because of a conspiracy to destroy the county’s “Republican Party.” [voting] machine. ” Some printers actually produced ballots that were too light for on-site tabulators, but those ballots could be counted later. Lake’s court challenge failed, and an independent investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk also baselessly suggested that Democrats are planning to suppress Republican votes in Maricopa County in the 2022 election, but liberals are trying to disrupt Maricopa County’s election process. He again claims that he is.

Kirk is the founder of the conservative student group Turning Point USA. posted in thread He said he had heard reports that “leftist groups” had mailed 20,000 voter registration forms in Maricopa County on Oct. 7, the last day for voter registration in the state.

“There are reports that left-wing groups delivered 20,000 voter registration forms to Maricopa County in the last day, almost certainly to give Democrats an opportunity to manipulate the law and force more registrations. “This is the final Democratic Party’s ‘throwing stone’ to create confusion and litigate,” Kirk said.

Andrew Corbett, a spokesperson for Turning Point Action, the political advocacy arm of Turning Point USA, said in an email that the organization’s staff has heard from county officials about the drop in voter registration, and that the report is accurate. He said it may or may not. . He said officials were not given the names of the organizations that dropped off the ballots.

“This is something that we took over from the TPUSA team because it was staff from Turning Point Action (our sister C4 organization) that we were told by county officials,” Corbett said. I hope that report is wrong. Please disprove it! The staff member was not told the name of the organization, so the tweet read “Report of a left-wing group.” ”

Corbett did not respond to additional questions about whether the “county employee” actually worked for the Maricopa County election district or another department within the county.

A spokesperson for the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office said in an email that the office “received a large number of paper voter registration forms.” [Oct. 7]”, the deadline for voter registration. However, it could not be confirmed whether any particular group had posted the 20,000 sheets. “It is not unusual to receive thousands of forms in the days leading up to the registration deadline,” the spokesperson said.

October 5, Arizona Secretary of State’s Office Notice issued Continuing registration support activities conducted by voter registration nonprofit organizations Voter Engagement Center and Voter Information Center. Although the CEO of both organizations is the same; tom lopachformer executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The Voter Participation Center aims to increase voter turnout among people of color, unmarried women, and young people.

“These private organizations aim to attract Arizona voters by increasing participation in upcoming elections. VPC and CVI have sent voter registration forms to residents in all 15 counties,” the Secretary of State’s Office said. stated in the notice. The Secretary of State’s Office said the organizations were not using the agency’s information. Although the form was created by that office, it is legally compliant and processed by the county recorder.

The Secretary of State’s Office told us that the press releases regarding VPC and CVI did not respond to Mr. Kirk’s claims. A VPC spokesperson said the group does not submit registration forms to election offices in any state. Instead, voters using VPC registration forms submit their registration forms themselves to county and state election offices.

Increased registration activity before deadline

If a group were to cancel 20,000 voter registrations right before the deadline, it would likely cause headaches for election officials. But election experts say it’s not nefarious or illegal, nor does it “disrupt” the electoral process as Kirk claimed.

“Receiving 20,000 documents at once may be unusual, but it is not illegal as long as all documents are filled out in accordance with the law,” said a spokesperson for the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office.

The spokesperson added: “We always see an increase in voter registration forms before the voter registration deadline. We have dozens of dedicated staff working to process them. [each] shape. “

Groups turning in 20,000 voter registration forms at the last minute are “not that unusual.” Justin Levittsaid a law professor and election law expert at Loyola Marymount University School of Law. Organizations that conduct voter registration efforts are often inundated with registration forms near deadlines, but the election office is seeing an increase in activity among groups submitting registration forms, he said. said.

“Voter registration deadlines definitely encourage a lot of registration activity,” Levitt said. “The thing about having a deadline is that most people think that it requires a last-minute response.”

This is also not illegal in Arizona, as there is no limit to the number of registrations that can be dropped off. jim burtonan election lawyer and partner at the Arizona-based law firm Barton Mendez Soto. Burton has represented clients promoting progressive voting measures.

“It’s a big number, but it’s not a big deal to me,” Barton said.

Levitt said election officials are anticipating and planning for the registration deadline to close and possibly hiring additional personnel to handle it, but it will be more difficult for election officials to process the paperwork. It is said that it has become.

“It’s not easy for the authorities when big slates come in, but they’re used to it,” he said. “No problems are anticipated.”

Levitt said some states are trying to ease registration constraints by implementing automatic voter registration processes, such as automatically registering people who interact with state Departments of Transportation. Arizona is not among those states, but According to Bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures.

Leavitt said delays in the arrival of registration forms could lead to more errors by election officials. He said organizations are aware of this and are interested in submitting registration forms early so that those collecting them can ensure they are as accurate as possible.

“Nobody’s interested in sticking to a registration form until the last moment. That’s not going to happen,” he said. “There is no reason for a voter registration organization to keep 20,000 forms that arrived a month ago until the last day.”

Levitt added that even if an organization submits this many voter registrations before the deadline, those registrations are legal and valid.

“There’s no difference between 20,000 people submitting registrations on the last day and a group of 20,000 people submitting registrations on the last day,” he said. “The amount of activity is the same whether one person is dropping off or picking up or dropping off 20,000 people.”

“I don’t see how submitting legal documents from voters before or after the deadline constitutes manipulation of a process designed to accept legal documents from voters until the deadline,” Levitt said. . “It’s not about manipulating the process; it’s about the process.”

Burton added that last-minute registrations will still be verified by the county recorder and if there are forms from fake or ineligible voters, they will not be processed. He said he had no idea how this could lead to a lawsuit, as Kirk claimed.

Kirk is wary of the influx of registrants, but his organization is touting efforts to enroll large numbers of Arizonans.

Through voting activities, Turning Point Action follow the vote“More than 3,000 people registered on the last day of registration,” Corbett said. “We don’t have cycle-wide numbers at this time, but our estimates are that we’ve contributed to more than a quarter of all new voter registrations in Arizona since 2020, and obviously nationally. More people are registering to vote.”

October 16th Description: This article has been updated to clarify that the Secretary of State’s press release regarding the Voter Participation Center and Voter Information Center is unrelated to Kirk’s claims. We also added comments from VPC spokespersons to clarify the voter registration outreach process.

Editor’s note: factcheck.org is one of several organizations Link with Facebook To debunk misinformation shared on social media. Previous stories can be viewed here. Facebook has no control over our editorial content.

source of information

Arizona Secretary of State. Email FactCheck.org. October 9, 2024.

Arizona Secretary of State. “Important Notice: Regarding Voter Registration Efforts by Outside Parties Not Affiliated with the Arizona Secretary of State.” June 5, 2024.

Barton, Jim. Partner at Barton Mendez Soto LLP. Telephone interview by FactCheck.org. October 10, 2024.

Voter Information Center. “About us” Accessed October 11, 2024.

cubit. Arizona counties by population (2024). Accessed October 15, 2024.

Jones, Blair. “Myths about watermarks on ballots have resurfaced.” FactCheck.org. May 12, 2021.

Keely, Eugene. “President Trump spreads election misinformation in key states.” FactCheck.org. June 21, 2024.

Corbett, Andrew. Turning Point Action spokesperson. Email FactCheck.org. October 9, 2024.

Levitt, Justin. Professor of Law, Loyola Law School, Loyola Marymount University. Telephone interview with FactCheck.org. October 11, 2024.

Maricopa County Recorder’s Office. Public Relations Officer. Email FactCheck.org. October 9, 2024.

National Conference of State Legislatures. “Automatic Voter Registration.” Updated on September 24, 2024.

Saranac Hale, Spencer. “Contrary to baseless claims, poll printers delayed Maricopa voting.” FactCheck.org. November 29, 2022.

Saranac Hale, Spencer. “Sharpei Voting Count in Arizona” FactCheck.org. November 4, 2020.

Stanford Data Commons. Ranking by population. All counties in Arizona. Accessed October 15, 2024.

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