The Public Interest Legal Foundation has released a summary of a Pima County database report detailing 186 foreigners who were canceled from the voter registration roll because they lacked U.S. citizenship. From this group, 7 individuals are recorded casting ballots across 2 federal and local elections.
About 65 percent of records came from political parties and group voter registration drives. The Party affiliations of the registrants within the Pima disclosure are:
| Party Registrations | |
|---|---|
| No Party | 108 |
| Democrat | 46 |
| Republican | 28 |
| Independent | 3 |
| Libertarian | 1 |
Maricopa County has also encountered the problem of foreign nationals registering and voting. According to records disclosed to PILF, Maricopa County removed 222 foreigners from the voter roll.
Arizona operates a two-tier system of voter registration based on proof of U.S. citizenship. 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.
“Federal law hampers states’ abilities to validate citizenship during the voter registration process,” said Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) President, J. Christian Adams. “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.”
For nearly a decade, PILF has harvested government records of noncitizen voter cancellation reports generated by local officials. These studies were carried out in places like Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, California, Texas, and sanctuary cities across the nation. PILF has brought and won federal trial and appellate court cases in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas to secure access to records relating to foreign nationals registering and voting.
PILF has an active lawsuit against Alameda County, CA for failing to disclose records relating to foreigners registering to vote.