25 Arizona voters wrongly flagged as noncitizens regain access before midterms

Twenty-five Arizona citizens were caught in a dispute over their voting registrations after officials wrongly questioned their citizenship. Investigations confirmed that they were American citizens, but their voting access was not immediately restored. The case mattered because the election was only days away.

Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap’s office said it needed documentary proof before reinstating the registrations. The Arizona Attorney General’s Office had already reached similar conclusions about the voters’ citizenship. It filed a lawsuit seeking restoration of their voting access before the election.

Court-ordered mediation produced an agreement on Friday. The Attorney General’s Office provided the requested citizenship information, including driver’s licence details. Heap’s office then restored 24 registrations. The remaining voter had already regained access independently. Early ballots were also issued to 18 affected voters on the Active Early Voting List.

The review identified 207 registered voters as possible noncitizens. That was the larger group flagged by Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap’s office. The numbers became significant because registration restrictions affected people who were legally eligible to vote.

The office sent the 207 cases to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for examination. Sixty of those voters had participated in earlier elections, so their registrations were changed and they could not vote unless they supplied citizenship documents. The investigation found that 52 of those 60 people were US citizens.

Only eight of the 60 were identified as noncitizens. The investigation found that no more than three of those eight had voted in the same election. The Arizona Attorney General’s Office reached similar conclusions. Even after citizenship was verified, 25 citizens still lacked restored voting access until the legal dispute was settled.

The Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, is a federal database. In this case, Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap’s office used it to review Arizona voter registrations. The database had been modified under the Trump administration to help identify possible noncitizens registered to vote.

The office used information from SAVE to flag 207 registered voters as possible noncitizens. Their cases were then sent to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for further examination. Sixty flagged voters had participated in earlier elections, and Heap changed their registration status until they produced documents establishing citizenship.

The database did not produce only accurate matches. The article states that SAVE also incorrectly flagged American citizens. Investigators later found that 52 of the 60 reviewed voters were US citizens. The episode shows why database results required additional examination before voting access was restricted.

The voters remained unable to vote because Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap’s office required legally sufficient documentary evidence. Officials had investigated the cases and found the people were American citizens, but Heap’s lawyer said the documents supporting those findings had not reached the recorder’s office.

That disagreement created a gap between a factual finding and restored voting access. Heap’s office maintained that it could reinstate the registrations once it received the necessary evidence. The Attorney General’s Office argued that the restrictions should not have been imposed before officials confirmed the voters were not American citizens.

With the election approaching, 25 citizens still lacked restored access. Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a lawsuit to address the problem. During mediation, her office supplied the citizenship information requested by Heap’s office. Once the documentation arrived, the remaining registrations were reinstated.

The mediation changed the affected voters’ status from restricted to active. It ended a dispute that had threatened their ability to vote just days before Arizona’s November 3 midterm elections. The settlement followed a lawsuit by Attorney General Kris Mayes.

During the process, Mayes’ office provided the citizenship information that Recorder Justin Heap’s office had requested. Heap’s office then reinstated the remaining affected voters. Of the 25 people covered by the lawsuit, 24 regained active status through mediation. The 25th person had already restored voting access by submitting proof independently.

The recorder’s office also issued early ballots to 18 affected voters who were on the county’s Active Early Voting List. October 23 was the deadline for requesting an early ballot. Mayes agreed to dismiss the lawsuit after the registrations were restored, ending the court case.

The legal standard raised by Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office was confirmation, not suspicion. Under the state law it cited, a recorder must confirm that someone is not a US citizen before cancelling that person’s voter registration.

Mayes’ office argued that Heap should not have restricted the registrations before establishing that the affected people were not American citizens. This position directly challenged the recorder’s approach. Heap’s office had relied on possible matches and required documents before restoring access, even after investigations found the voters were citizens.

The disagreement became a court case because the election was approaching. Mayes sought restoration for 25 citizens whose citizenship had been verified. The dispute ended when her office provided the requested citizenship information. Heap’s office then restored the registrations, while Mayes agreed to dismiss the lawsuit.

A verification system can produce a false positive when its data points to a possible citizenship problem even though the person is an American citizen. The article gives a direct example: SAVE incorrectly flagged American citizens during Arizona’s registration review. That makes follow-up investigation essential.

Heap’s office used SAVE to flag 207 voters and referred the cases for examination. Of 60 people who had participated in earlier elections, investigators found that 52 were US citizens and eight were noncitizens. The results show that an initial database flag was not the same as a confirmed finding.

Correcting errors before an election protects eligible voters from losing access. In this case, 25 citizens remained unable to vote even after their citizenship was verified. Court-ordered mediation restored their registrations, and 18 received early ballots. The dispute also showed how delays can make an administrative error especially serious.