PHOENIX, Ariz. — Arizona is facing a significant voter registration crisis, as Secretary of State Adrian Fontes revealed today that over 218,000 voters were improperly recorded as having provided proof of citizenship, a requirement for voting in state and local elections.
This figure is more than doubled from initial estimates and raises major concerns about the integrity of Arizona’s voter rolls just weeks before the upcoming election. Secretary of State Adrian Fontes announced the error, which affects more Republicans than Democrats, but provided little transparency on the root cause or immediate solution.
In response to this alarming discovery, AZGOP Chair Gina Swoboda issued the following statement:
“Secretary of State Adrian Fontes has repeatedly demonstrated a complete inability to execute the core functions of his position. The public, impacted stakeholders, and the Arizona Supreme Court were misled as to the extent of the issue and its effect on Arizona’s voter registration records.
The AZGOP demands that Secretary Fontes IMMEDIATELY make public the SQL query used to determine in the voter records impacted by this error and that his office IMMEDIATELY deliver the list of impacted voters to all 15 county recorders.
Secretary Fontes’ desire for a top down system continues to shut out our county recorders who are the ONLY officials empowered by Arizona statute to process voter registration record changes.
This is a sad day for transparency.
The voters of Arizona have a total loss of confidence in Secretary Fontes. The AZGOP will continue to work toward transparency in all of our elections process.
A message to our voters from your chair: Do NOT allow these people to dissuade you from voting.
We. Are. Winning. VOTE!”
