Court orders Arizona to release list of voters whose citizenship has not been verified

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona's secretary of state must release a list of tens of thousands of voters who were there incorrectly classified A Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that he had access to the full ballot because of a coding error.

Secretary of State Adrian Fontes' office initially rejected a public records request for the list led by America First Legal, a group led by Stephen Miller, a former adviser to former President Donald Trump. Fontes' office expressed concerns about the accuracy of the list and the safety of the voters included.

Judge Scott Blaney said the court had not heard credible evidence that the information would be misused or promote violence or harassment against voters whose citizenship was not verified. Blaney gave Fontes' office a deadline of noon Monday to release a list of 98,000 voters and information that Fontes relied on in his early October announcement that even more voters would be affected – a total of 218,000.

Arizona is among the most closely watched states given its presidential candidate status, and both campaigns have increased their presence in recent weeks to woo undecided voters. The coding error has no impact on federal races. But it led to a decision by the State Supreme Court in September that the misclassified voters — who make up about 5% of all undecided voters — could still cast the full ballot, although officials have not confirmed whether they are U.S. citizens.

This number of voters could tip the scales in close local and state elections as well as closely contested ballot measures Abortion and immigration. Voters are almost evenly registered as Democrats, Republicans or neither party.

Fontes said he had a list of 98,000 voters, but not a larger one, although he said many more were affected. His office said Thursday that it was reviewing Blaney's decision and weighing his options.

Blaney barred the Strong Communities Foundation and its legal counsel, America First Legal, from disclosing information they receive from Fontes' office before Election Day on Tuesday to anyone except county clerks, the President of the Arizona Senate and Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives and members of the Elections Committee.

America First Legal attorney James Rogers said in a statement Thursday that the group was confident the records could be used to verify the citizenship of voters on the list.

“It is unfortunate that Secretary Fontes has so aggressively opposed our common-sense efforts to restore confidence in our state’s election system,” Rogers said.

The ruling also requires Fontes' office to release communications and data transfers with a number of government agencies, including the Arizona Department of Transportation and Gov. Katie Hobbs' office.

The misclassification of voters from pure federal voters to full voters was attributed to an error in the state driver's license databases and the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division.

Arizona is unique among states in that it requires voters to prove their citizenship to vote in local and state elections. Anyone who has not done it, but has sworn to do so under penalty of the law, may do so Only take part in federal elections.

The state considers driver's licenses issued after October 1996 as valid proof of citizenship. However, the system coding error misclassified 218,000 voters who were licensed before 1996 as full voters, state officials said.