Grand Canyon Times

America First Legal (AFL) sent a letter on behalf of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club and Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona to all sixteen counties in the state reminding them of their obligation to "remove foreign citizens from" their voter rolls. 

Arizona Free Enterprise Club authored HB 2492 which was passed by the Arizona Legislature in 2022 and signed by then-governor Doug Ducey. The legislation added securities to the state voter registration process, restricting voter registration forms submitted without Documentary Proof of Citizenship, required counties to try to find citizenship status for submissions of the federal registration form, and require a proof of citizenship to vote by mail in federal elections.

“With the General Election quickly approaching, Arizonans still have serious concerns about the integrity of their votes – and for good reasons,” Arizona Free Enterprise Club President Scot Mussi said in a press release. “It is unconscionable why any county would fail to clean its voter rolls to ensure that only American citizens are able to vote in U.S. elections. We intend to follow through with aggressive litigation should any of these elections’ officials ignore our request for strict compliance with state and federal laws. Arizonans deserve no less.”

The letter from AFL reminded counties that both "state and federal law prohibit foreign nationals from voting or registering to vote" and require counties to perform maintinence on their voter rolls to ensure only citizens are registered. "Arizona law requires you to perform monthly list maintenance to confirm the citizenship of federal-only registered voters," AFL wrote in the letter.

The letter also detailed methods of verifying citizenship status, by requesting the information from the Department of Homeland Security, which is required to supply it to election officials for the purpose of verifying voter registration rolls. 

Currently, voters are only required to certify their citizenship by signing a federal voter registration form created by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), which has registrants affirm they are a U.S. citizen and are eligible to vote “under penalty of perjury.” Individuals do not have to provide documentation of their citizenship to register. 

States are required to use this form for registration under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), and are not allowed to require additional information in order to register voters.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is required by law under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), at 8 U.S.C. § 1373, to “respond to an inquiry by a Federal, State, or local government agency, seeking to verify or ascertain the citizenship or immigration status of any individual within the jurisdiction of the agency for any purpose authorized by law, by providing the requested verification or status information.” 

Another provision of the INA says “[n]otwithstanding any other provision of Federal, State, or local law, no State or local government entity may be prohibited, or in any way restricted, from sending to or receiving from ... [DHS] information regarding the immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of an alien in the United States," which prevents states' requests for citizenship information on the basis of voter registration from being denied. 

AFL asked counties to "respond to this letter by the close of business on Tuesday, July 23" to confirm that they had request the citizenship data from the DHS, submitted a list of federal form-only voters to the state Attorney General, and posted the number of federal form-only registered voters at specific dates throughout the year on the county recorder website. "If you fail to confirm the above information in writing, then our clients may take legal action against you to compel you to fulfill your mandatory duties under Arizona law," AFL concluded.