Former Assistant Attorney General of Arizona, Jennifer Wright, highlighted that Arizona stands out as one of the few states with a bifurcated election system. In the 2020 presidential election, county data revealed a worrisome trend of over 5,600 federal-only ballots cast without evidence of U.S. citizenship, shedding light on concerns related to Arizona’s unique election structure.
Arizona’s election system entails a distinction between residents proving U.S. citizenship, granting full voting rights, and others having the privilege to vote solely in federal elections without providing proof of citizenship.
Despite the state law requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration, a 2013 Supreme Court ruling compelled Arizona to accept U.S. voter registration forms, thereby allowing individuals without citizenship proof to participate in federal races.
The federal voter registration forms only necessitate a sworn declaration of U.S. citizenship, leading to the enrollment of ‘federal-only’ voters without proper documentation.
In Arizona, the voter registration process cross-references driver’s license records, assigning ‘federal-only’ status to individuals lacking proof of citizenship, rendering them ineligible for state elections.
To address this, a 2021 Arizona law mandates counties to verify the citizenship of ‘federal-only’ voters through diverse databases, rejecting applications without citizenship proof. Officials disregarding this requirement face felony charges.
The Justice Department’s lawsuit against Arizona alleges violations of the National Voter Registration Act and Civil Rights Act, challenging the legality of the law.
Former Arizona Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Wright attributes the state’s bifurcated elections to restrictions imposed by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, distinguishing it from states that employ driver’s license requirements for voter registration.
The registration process is designed to cross-reference voter names with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ SAVE database to detect non-citizens, although lacking a mechanism to ensure this verification.
Having voter registration records for non-citizens may hinder their naturalization process, as these registrations require cancellation by immigration officials.
According to a report from the Public Interest Legal Foundation, some foreign nationals register to vote to bolster their case for future naturalization. These registrations, when uncovered during naturalization applications, often necessitate cancellation by immigration authorities.
In Maricopa County alone, the report identified cancellations for 222 foreign nationals’ voter registrations since 2015, with nine of them casting 12 ballots across four federal elections.
However, information from Arizona’s 15 counties, excluding Apache and Cochise, detailed the number of federal-only ballots cast and federal-only registered voters, raising concerns about their impact on the 2020 election results, where President Biden led former President Trump by 10,457 votes in the state.
In Cochise County, obtaining information on federal-only ballots and voter details required a public records request, which was reported to Just the News on Wednesday, listed as number 125 in the queue.
According to state law directives, the county recorder is obligated to provide the secretary of state with information on individuals registered to vote using federal or state registration forms without submitting proof of citizenship.
Furthermore, the recorder must publish on the county’s website the count of such registrations and, after general elections, the number of ballots cast by eligible individuals for federal offices only.
During the 2020 presidential election in Arizona, more than 5,697 federal-only ballots were cast, primarily originating from Maricopa County. Some counties specified whether all the cast federal-only ballots were accepted.
The election outcomes indicated a margin of 10,457 votes in favor of President Joe Biden over former President Donald Trump.
Details regarding federal-only registered voters in various counties were extracted from information submitted to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office about a month before the elections. This dataset included both active and inactive voters, with the designation “all federal-only voters” encompassing both categories. Voters are deemed inactive if voting materials sent to their addresses are returned as undeliverable.
Apache County:
- All federal-only voters registered in 2020: 162
- All federal-only voters registered in 2022: 97
Cochise County:
- All federal-only voters registered in 2020: 288
- All federal-only voters registered in 2022: 297
Coconino County:
- Federal-only ballots accepted and counted in 2020: 335
- Federal-only ballots accepted and counted in 2022: 116
- All federal-only voters registered in 2020: 2,381
- All federal-only voters registered in 2022: 2,841
Gila County:
- Federal-only ballots cast and accepted in 2020: 23
- Federal-only ballots cast and accepted in 2022: 5
- All federal-only voters registered in 2020: 88
- All federal-only voters registered in 2022: 67
Graham County:
- Federal-only ballots cast and counted in 2020: 8
- Federal-only ballots cast and counted in 2022: 5
- All federal-only voters registered in 2020: 40
- All federal-only voters registered in 2022: 45
Greenlee County:
- Federal-only ballots cast in 2020 and accepted: 4
- Federal-only ballots cast in 2022 and accepted: 1
- All federal-only voters registered in 2020: 9
- All federal-only voters registered in 2022: 6
La Paz County:
- Federal-only ballots cast in 2020: 11
- Federal-only ballots cast in 2022: 0
- All federal-only voters registered in 2020: 27
- All federal-only voters registered in 2022: 16
Maricopa County:
- Federal-only ballots cast in 2020: 8,114, with 4,484 of those accepted and counted
- Federal-only ballots cast in 2022: 2,749
- Federal-only voters registered in 2020: 14,298
- All federal-only voters registered in 2022: 27,441
Mohave County:
- Federal-only ballots cast in 2020: 257
- Federal-only ballots cast in 2022: 80
- All federal-only voters registered in 2020: 707
- All federal-only voters registered in 2022: 484
Navajo County:
- Federal-only ballots cast and counted in 2020: 14
- Federal-only ballots cast and counted in 2022: 2
- Federal-only voters registered in 2020: 46
- Federal-only voters registered in 2022: 82
Pima County:
- Federal-only voters in 2020: 1,942
- Federal-only ballots cast in 2022: 27 provisional and conditional provisional ballots counted
- All federal-only voters registered in 2020: 7,211
- All federal-only voters registered in 2022: 9,095
Pinal County:
- Federal-only ballots accepted and counted in 2020: 96
- Federal-only ballots accepted and counted in 2022: 49
- All federal-only voters registered in 2020: 1,369
- All federal-only voters registered in 2022: 1,233
Santa Cruz County:
- Federal-only ballots cast in 2020: 7
- Federal-only ballots cast in 2022: 5
- Federal-only voters registered in 2020: 30
- Federal-only voters registered in 2022: 30
Yavapai County:
- Federal-only ballots cast and accepted in 2020: 279
- Federal-only ballots cast and accepted in 2022: 63
- Federal-only voters registered in 2020: 509
- Federal-only voters registered in 2022: 226
Yuma County:
- Federal-only ballots cast in 2020: 179
- Federal-only ballots cast in 2022: 53
- Federal-only voters registered in 2020: 333
- Federal-only voters registered in 2022: 403
