A new summary by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) found that 186 voter registrants have been “involuntarily purged” for citizenship issues in Pima County, Arizona, since 2021.
The PILF summary, citing records released by Pima County election officials, found that seven individuals within the group of 186 canceled voter registrations had a history of casting ballots across two federal and local elections.
Six of the seven individuals with voting histories were recorded to have cast a ballot in the 2022 general election.
Sixty-five percent of the purged records regarding party affiliation came from political parties and group voter registration drives.
While 108 of the registrants were not affiliated with a party, 46 were recorded Democrats, 28 were recorded Republicans, three were Independents, and one was a recorded Libertarian.
Last year, PILF released a similar voter purge summary of Maricopa County, which showed that 222 voter registrants were purged for citizenship issues in the county since 2015.
“Arizona operates a two-tier system of voter registration based on proof of U.S. citizenship,” PILF explained. “Registrants who do not provide necessary proof are put on the state’s voter roll used for only federal elections. Applicants who show proof of citizenship such as a passport, birth certificate, tribal ID, or naturalization certificate number are eligible to participate in all elections. This system exists because federal law does not allow states to verify citizenship.”
PILF President J. Christian Adams added, “Federal law hampers states’ abilities to validate citizenship during the voter registration process. The federal government could update Motor Voter to allow states to require proof of citizenship and add citizenship to Motor Voter’s reasonable list maintenance requirements. Arizona is limited to building imperfect systems to address the problem of foreign nationals voting.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Vote Sign” by GPA Photo Archive. CC BY-NC 2.0.
