Three Arizona Republicans filed suit in federal court claiming that Secretary of State Adrian Fontes kept inaccurate voter registration numbers, meaning that hundreds of thousands of ineligible voters haven’t been removed from the statewide list.
“Based on even the most conservative data sources, Arizona has at least 500,000 registered voters on the voter rolls who should have otherwise been removed,” the 20-page lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of Arizona on May 31 reads.
“In other words, 500,000 registered voters currently listed on the secretary’s voter rolls for Arizona are deceased or no longer reside in Arizona.”
Other “reliable data sources” indicate the state has between 1 million and 1.27 million “unaccounted-for voters on the state voter rolls,” the lawsuit states.
In the complaint, Scot Mussi, president of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club; Gina Swoboda, chairwoman of the Republican Party of Arizona; and Maricopa County voter Steven Gaynor allege that Mr. Fontes failed to resolve the problem within 90 days of a written request to do so by law.
According to the suit, Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) requires states to maintain accurate registered voter rolls to prevent election fraud and faulty counts.
“Arizona has failed to comply with this requirement because Arizona registration data and statistics indicate the lack of an NVRA-compliant list maintenance program in the state,” the lawsuit argues.
“Instead of establishing an efficient and uniform voter file maintenance program across Arizona, the secretary—when providing information regarding its list maintenance programs to the state legislature—has responded that its program ‘is in development,’ meaning that the general maintenance program required of state by the NVRA does not currently exist in Arizona.”
The suit alleges that all 15 counties in Arizona have registration rates that “far exceed” the national and statewide voter registration rates in recent years.
Four counties—Apache, La Paz, Navajo, and Santa Cruz—have more eligible registered voters than legal residents older than 18, the suit adds.
The suit states that because of the alleged failure to keep accurate voter registration data, ineligible voters may vote in state elections, “risking the dilution of” legal votes.
As a result, the plaintiffs argue that they must spend more time and resources ensuring that elections are free of fraud and abuse.
The suit argues that maintaining voter rolls “bloated with ineligible voters harms the electoral process, heightens the risk of electoral fraud, and undermines public confidence in elections.”
The suit states that Mr. Fontes, a Democrat, is “primarily responsible” for keeping accurate voter lists in Arizona as the state’s chief election officer.
Mr. Fontes was elected in the 2022 midterm election, defeating Republican Mark Finchem with 52.4 to 47.6 percent of the vote.
The suit alleges the secretary of state failed to make “reasonable efforts” to conduct voter list maintenance and caused the plaintiffs “irreparable injuries as a direct result” of that failure.
The plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgment acknowledging the violation of law and injunctive relief requiring Mr. Fontes to develop and maintain an accurate list of registered voters.
J.P. Martin, the secretary of state’s deputy communications director, said in response to an Epoch Times request for comment, “We do not comment on ongoing litigation.”
