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   From: yourdime@outlook.com   
      
   ‘The best way forward is to provide transparency and ease the voters’   
   concerns,’ Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona Chair Merissa   
   Hamilton told The Federalist.   
      
   Arizona’s Democrat elections chief is illegally withholding the   
   identities of approximately 218,000 registered voters on the state’s   
   voter rolls who lack documentary proof of citizenship (DPOC), a lawsuit   
   filed Wednesday alleges.   
      
   Brought by the Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona (SCFA) against   
   Democrat Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and the Arizona Department of   
   State, the legal challenge “seeks to restore public trust in   
   [Arionza’s] electoral system by ensuring transparency about the   
   Defendants’ failures to ensure that registered voters have provided   
   DPOC, as required by law.” The group is represented by America First   
   Legal and a law firm spearheaded by former Arizona Assistant Attorney   
   General Jennifer Wright.   
      
   The lawsuit addresses an issue that first came to light last month, in   
   which Arizona election officials announced they discovered   
   approximately 98,000 registered “full-ballot” voters who have not   
   provided documentary proof of citizenship required to participate in   
   state and local elections. The error appears to have resulted “from the   
   way the Motor Vehicle Division provides driver’s license information to   
   the state’s voter registration system,” according to Votebeat Arizona.   
      
   Fontes said most of the affected voters are registered Republicans,   
   according to the outlet.   
      
   In Arizona, voters registering via state registration form must show   
   DPOC to vote in state and local races. Individuals who are unable to   
   provide such documentation are registered as “federal-only” voters and   
   can only cast ballots in federal races.   
      
   After the initial discovery, Fontes held a Sept. 10 phone call with   
   Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes, both Democrats,   
   according to audio obtained by the Washington Post. In this call, they   
   discussed, among other subjects, the possibility of filing what Fontes   
   reportedly termed a “friendly lawsuit” designed to shift the issue to   
   the courts, according to the outlet.   
      
   Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer filed such a suit, the Post   
   noted, with the Arizona Supreme Court, arguing the voters in question   
   should be classified as “federal-only” until they provide DPOC. Fontes   
   and the Arizona GOP argued the opposite — that these voters should be   
   granted full-ballot status for the general election since they are not   
   at fault for the government’s “error.” Strong Communities Foundation   
   for Arizona along with state resident Yvonne Cahill filed an amicus   
   brief in the case, arguing the high court should mandate county   
   recorders to “send full ballots to all Affected Voters on the early   
   voting list,” but should also “order … all ballots returned by Affected   
   Voters [to] be segregated pending confirmation of the voter’s   
   citizenship.”   
      
   The Arizona Supreme Court ultimately sided with Fontes and the Arizona   
   GOP, with Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer writing that the court is   
   “unwilling on these facts to disenfranchise voters en masse from   
   participating in state contests.”   
      
   Fontes announced on Monday, however, that his office has identified an   
   additional 120,000 registered full-ballot voters — most of whom are   
   Republicans — lacking DPOC, bringing the total number of affected   
   electors to 218,000. The secretary’s office argued these newly   
   discovered voters are covered by the Arizona Supreme Court’s recent   
   decision.   
      
   According to its Wednesday lawsuit, SCFA “filed a valid public records   
   request seeking the list of these individuals” in the interest of   
   guaranteeing “transparency about the Defendants’ failures to ensure   
   that registered voters have provided DPOC, as required by law.” The   
   plaintiff alleges that Fontes and the Arizona Department of State “are   
   stonewalling and have unlawfully refused to fulfill” its request in an   
   apparent attempt to “insulat[e] themselves from embarrassment.”   
      
   “The Defendants’ summary denial of the Plaintiff’s reasonable and   
   targeted public records request presupposes that the Plaintiffs bear   
   the burden of justifying their request. However, this gets things   
   exactly backward,” the lawsuit reads. “Public officers ‘bear the burden   
   of showing that [a public records request] … pose[s] an unreasonable   
   administrative burden’ and ‘must articulate sufficiently weighty   
   reasons to tip the balance away from the presumption of disclosure and   
   toward nondisclosure.'”   
      
   “Because the Defendants wrongfully denied the Plaintiff’s public   
   records request, and because no exception to the Public Records Law   
   applies, the Plaintiff files this special action to compel production   
   of the requested public records,” it added.   
      
   [Read Next: Lawsuit: Arizona’s 15 Counties Are Failing To Remove   
   Noncitizens From The Voter Rolls]   
      
   SCFA has asked the Maricopa County Superior Court to provide “special   
   action relief” compelling Fontes and the Arizona Department of State   
   “to produce or make available to the Plaintiff all public records   
   requested by its [public records request] no later than October 7.”   
      
   In a statement provided to The Federalist, SCFA Chair Merissa Hamilton   
   blasted Fontes for his “mismanagement of this seemingly never-ending   
   debacle,” which she argued “has caused massive voter concerns and sowed   
   doubt in election administration — [again].”   
      
   “The lack of transparency to our county recorders and refusal to   
   provide them the databases they need to do their job in voter   
   maintenance, impacting 5% of our voters, further begs us to ask, ‘What   
   is [Fontes] hiding?'” she said. “The best way forward is to provide   
   transparency and ease the voters’ concerns. This lawsuit intends [to]   
   instill transparency and trust back into our election administration.”   
      
   The office of Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes did not respond   
   to The Federalist’s request for comment.   
      
   UPDATE   
      
   When pressed for comment on the lawsuit’s allegations, Fontes spokesman   
   Aaron Thacker told The Federalist the secretary’s office does not   
   “comment on pending litigation.”   
      
   https://thefederalist.com/2024/10/04/lawsuit-arizonas-elections-chief-   
   is-hiding-info-on-218k-voters-lacking-proof-of-citizenship/   
      
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