America First Legal (AFL) filed a lawsuit on Monday against Maricopa County, including Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, for failing to remove noncitizens and illegal immigrants from their voter rolls. AFL sent letters to election officials in all 15 Arizona counties in July, demanding they fulfill their legal obligations within a week or AFL would sue them.
The complaint says 35,273 registered voters in Arizona had failed to provide proof of citizenship and were registered as federal-only voters as of April 2024, a number that continues to increase, according to a report from Maricopa County. That report revealed that between April 1 and July 3, the numbers increased from 21,595 to 26,108, a jump of 21 percent. Additionally, the complaint cited a July 2024 survey of likely voters in Arizona and five other states, which found that over 1 percent said they are not U.S. citizens. AFL stated that recent races in Arizona have been decided by margins of less than 1 percent.
James Rogers, America First Legal senior counsel, said in a statement, “It is against Arizona and federal law for foreign citizens to register to vote. Arizona has adopted first-in-the-nation laws to help make sure foreigners can’t register and to also ensure that foreigners already on the voter rolls are removed. Yet, those laws have no impact if Arizona’s County Recorders ignore them.”
AFL represented plaintiffs ezaz.org, named in the complaint as Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona, and Yvonne Cahill. According to the complaint, which was also drafted by local election attorney Jennifer Wright, due to ezaz.org’s “voter outreach and education,” the organization “is beneficially interested in the proper conduct of elections, including voter list maintenance.” Cahill is a former Arizona Republican Party official and naturalized citizen.
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