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An Arizona court ruled on Thursday that Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, must immediately produce the list of individuals who registered to vote without providing proof of citizenship.
The Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County ruled that Fontes must produce the list of approximately 218,000 by Monday.
Judge Scott Blaney determined that Fontes had not “established by a preponderance of the evidence that production of the records would violate rights of privacy or confidentiality or would be detrimental to the best interests of the state.”
America First Legal (AFL) filed the lawsuit against Fontes.
“We just WON our lawsuit against the AZ Secretary of State for illegally withholding his list of the 218K+ registered voters who did not provide proof of citizenship. He must produce his complete list of these voters by MONDAY — before Election Day,” AFL wrote.
🚨🗳️BREAKING NEWS — HUGE WIN
We just WON our lawsuit against the AZ Secretary of State for illegally withholding his list of the 218K+ registered voters who did not provide proof of citizenship.
He must produce his complete list of these voters by MONDAY — before Election Day. pic.twitter.com/RN7G6xU6RL
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) October 31, 2024
From AFL:
Secretary Fontes announced in September that a longtime computer glitch had allowed 218,000 individuals to register to vote without providing proof of citizenship, even though Arizona law requires such proof. Earlier this month, AFL sued to obtain this list on behalf of the Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona, known as “EZAZ.org.” Arizona’s Public Records Law requires Secretary Fontes to produce this type of voter information for members of the public who request it, and Secretary Fontes’s Office regularly produces voter lists in response to such requests. After Secretary Fontes violated the law and refused to hand over these records, AFL swiftly sued to demand accountability.
This lawsuit is critically important to the integrity of the upcoming presidential election as the official results for the presidential race in Arizona 2020 list the margin of victory as being only 10,457 votes.
Today, AFL has secured a win after the Court ruled that the Secretary of State must produce this list by Monday, November 4, 2024 — one day before the U.S. presidential election.
Upon obtaining the list, EZAZ.org intends to immediately share it with the County Recorders in all Arizona counties so that they can verify the citizenship of voters who have not already provided proof of citizenship, as required by Arizona law (A.R.S. § 16-121.01 and 16-165). The Arizona legislature also requested this list from Secretary Fontes and was denied. Accordingly, EZAZ.org intends to share the list with the leadership and election committees of the Arizona House and Senate.
At trial, Secretary Fontes testified that his office only possesses a partial list of 98,000 of the 218,000 affected individuals because the Arizona Motor Vehicles Division has not yet provided him with a complete list. However, the court found that Secretary Fontes “provided inconsistent testimony on this point” and that “[h]is testimony suggested that he lacked detailed familiarity with the AZSOS’s efforts with regard to the issue and with regard to the records in the possession of the AZSOS related to the 218,000 individuals.” The court’s order requires Secretary Fontes to produce the list of 98,000 individuals that he has along with any other personally identifying information that he has about the 218,000 individuals.
Breaking: Judge backs America First Legal bid to secure list of 218K voters without citizenship proof https://t.co/XubGUo2HBk
— Just the News (@JustTheNews) October 31, 2024
“A majority of Arizonans no longer trust the election system of our state. One of the reasons is the lack of transparency from our state’s elected officials. When Secretary Fontes discovered the glitch that allowed 218,000 individuals to register without providing proof of citizenship, he should have immediately shared the list of affected individuals with Arizona’s county recorders, who are in charge of verifying the citizenship of voters. Instead, he has jealously guarded the list, refusing to share it with anyone. This suit was about restoring transparency and ensuring that county recorders can do their jobs by verifying the citizenship of voters. It is unfortunate that Secretary Fontes so aggressively opposed our common-sense efforts to help restore trust in our state’s election system. This was a case we never should have needed to file,” James Rogers, America First Legal Senior Counsel, said in a statement.
KJZZ reports:
The judge also said that Fontes provided “inconsistent testimony” on exactly how many people are affected by what has been called a “glitch” in the system used by the Motor Vehicle Division that resulted in questioning whether some people on the current voter rolls have not provided legally required proof of citizenship.
Still, Blaney acknowledged Fontes’ concern that there may not yet be a complete list, with estimates of those affected at one point during the trial earlier this week going as high as 345,000.
So he ordered Fontes to release by noon on Monday that initial list of 98,000, which the secretary finally conceded he does have.
And, acknowledging possible threats, he forbade Stronger Communities from using the list to contact any of the affected voters until after Tuesday’s election. And he also said that until Nov. 6 the organization can release that list only to county recorders, the Senate president, the speaker of the House, and members of the Elections committees of the House and Senate.
Read the full ruling HERE.