logo
Brief Publisher Logo
FACT BRIEF

Have Arizona election officials refused to remove non-citizens from voter rolls?

By Carmela Guaglianone
Copy link
email
Copy featured image
email
NO

Arizona's voter roll maintenance procedures, which county recorders and the Secretary of State are responsible for implementing, include processes for verifying citizenship. There is no evidence to suggest that non-citizens remain on voter rolls, and non-citizen voting in the United States is extremely rare.

Arizona’s maintenance procedures include several measures for verifying citizenship, including resources from a multi-state voter information database, the Electronic Registration Information Center, and correspondence with the county jury commissioner’s office.

Conservative groups have recently put pressure on elections officials to explicitly verify the citizenship of all federal-only voters and have sued Arizona’s 15 county recorders for allegedly failing to fulfill this duty. The state’s attorney general has disputed a related legal complaint.

Arizona is the only state with federal-only ballots, which require voters to provide proof of citizenship documents to register in state and local elections. Most federal-only voters are Native Americans, students or seniors.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
America First Legal America First Legal Sends Legal Demand Letter to All 15 Arizona Counties Threatening Legal Action If They Do Not Take Action to Stop Illegal Aliens from Voting
Maricopa County Elections Department Voter List Maintenance & Registration Cancellation
Arizona Secretary of State Voter Registration Procedures
Democracy Docket Arizona Superior Court, Complaint against all Arizona County Recorders
Democracy Docket Arizona Superior Court, Notice of removal from state court
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting
The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is the state’s only independent, nonpartisan and collaborative nonprofit newsroom dedicated to statewide, data-driven investigative reporting. AZCIR's mission is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable by exposing injustice and systemic inequities through investigative journalism.
FACT BRIEF BY
Brief Publisher Logo
Latest fact briefs
facebook
twitter
email
email
About fact briefs published on Gigafact
Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.