Has Arizona identified 50,000 noncitizens for removal from its voter rolls?

Though Arizona has approximately 50,000 registered voters who haven’t submitted the documents required to prove citizenship—limiting them to voting in federal elections—these voters have not been shown to be noncitizens. Most are presumed to be U.S. citizens who were unable to provide a birth certificate, passport or similar form of verification upon registration. 

The noncitizen voter claim misrepresents a recent legal settlement that stemmed from a lawsuit alleging election officials from Arizona’s 15 counties were not using all available means to verify voters’ citizenship status. As part of the settlement, county officials agreed to ask the Department of Homeland Security about additional ways to authenticate the citizenship of the state’s nearly 50,000 federal-only voters. 

Arizona law requires documentary proof of citizenship to vote in state and local elections. Federal-only voters have attested that they are U.S. citizens under threat of perjury, as required by federal law.