By Staff Reporter |
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (MCAO) is investigating over 200 individuals for noncitizen voting.
The MCAO notified the public in a press release of the investigation.
The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office referred the names of over 200 individuals to the MCAO between last week and this week. Out of that population, 60 have reportedly cast votes in the past.
MCAO limited the amount of information given to the public about their investigation.
“This investigation is in its very early stages, and in order to protect the integrity of the investigation, we will not comment further. When more information is available for release, we will make that public,” stated the MCAO.
Last month the recorder’s office notified the public of those 60 individuals they determined were noncitizens and had voted in prior elections.
Those 60 noncitizens with a voting history were uncovered following the recorder’s review of nearly 61,700 voters affected by the Motor Vehicle Division oversight that failed to acquire documentary proof of citizenship. At the time of the press release in February, the recorder’s office found a total of nearly 140 noncitizens under that classification who had registered to vote.
The recorder’s office relied on the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database to confirm the citizenship of the registered voters.
Last October, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) expanded authorization use within the SAVE database to enable states to verify citizenship on its voter rolls.
The updated authorization allowed for additional identifiers beyond the last four digits of Social Security numbers to include full Social Security numbers as well as driver’s license and passport numbers.
Along with the SAVE database expansion, former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem came to Arizona in February as part of a promotional tour on the SAVE Act.
That visit by Noem advanced more than just public awareness of the SAVE Act.
Arizona lawmakers revealed during a committee hearing earlier this month that the former recorder of Maricopa County, Stephen Richer, was being investigated for possible obstruction.
The revelation occurred as part of discussions by the House Federalism, Military Affairs, & Elections Committee on a criminal investigation package delivered to DHS and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence by the committee chair, State Rep. John Gillette (R-LD30).
“Stephen Richer telling recorders not to comply with the legislative public records request. That is not a glitch. That’s on purpose,” said Gillette. “There appears to be some obstruction or intent to obstruct other recorders from doing their job because they have an association, he was president of the association at the time, but he was instructing other elected officials that are not of Maricopa County how to comply or not comply in this case with a lawful public records request from the House. That is being looked at, and thus we’ve had a subpoena issued since.”
Although the MCAO announced they were investigating the alleged noncitizen voters, they weren’t the only agency notified of the problematic registrations.
The recorder’s office also referred the alleged noncitizen voters to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
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