By Staff Reporter |

Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap turned over potential noncitizen voter records to Attorney General Kris Mayes for review on Friday. 

Heap’s referral follows two letters from the attorney general’s office — one from early April, one from earlier this week — warning Heap that his delay in referring the alleged noncitizen voters to them violated state law, as first reported by Votebeat. 

Heap responded to the first letter claiming that he need not comply with the cited statute because their office had not yet canceled the voter registrations of the individuals identified as potential noncitizen voters. Instead, Heap placed those identified voters in a “Not Eligible” status pending submission of documentary proof of citizenship. 

Heap gave notice of the status change of the potential noncitizen voters to Secretary of State Adrian Fontes in early March, citing the Elections Procedures Manual (EPM) as justification. The attorney general office contends that Heap had misapplied his duties toward proof of citizenship requirements for voter registration to registered voters.

In that notice, Heap refused to hand over the potential noncitizen voters’ information to Fontes. 

Similarly, Heap told the attorney general’s office in response to its first notice letter to him that a referral of the potential noncitizen voters would be “premature.” In mid-February, Heap announced to the public that he was referring the noncitizen voters to the attorney general’s office in addition to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (MCAO).

So far, Heap’s office has only submitted a referral of the alleged noncitizen voters to the MCAO. 

In the most recent letter from Mayes’ office, Criminal Division Chief Counsel Nicholas Klingerman rejected Heap’s legal interpretation as incorrect. 

“You cannot place ‘not eligible’ holds on these registered voters and fail to issue criminal referrals,” wrote Klingerman. “The statute does not authorize an indefinite administrative suspension for the purported noncitizen registrants, nor does it allow county election officials to choose which prosecuting agency may investigate these possible violations of state law.”

State law requires county recorders to cancel the voter registrations and notify the county attorney and attorney general for possible investigation of any registered voters for which the recorder has obtained information and confirmed noncitizenship. 

In March, the MCAO began the early stages of its investigation into over 200 individuals over allegations of noncitizen voting. The recorder’s office identified the individuals through the federal database expanded last October by the Department of Homeland Security for the purposes of voter roll citizenship verification, the Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements.

The most recent letter from Mayes’ office also accused Heap of intentionally misleading the public. 

“At this point, your insistence that you are following the law is wrong at best and purposefully misleading at worst. Moreover, your statement that criminal referrals would not be appropriate despite having acknowledged the requirement to refer these individuals to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office and making a criminal referral to MCAO, suggests your intent is to mislead,” said Klingerman. 

Last April, all 15 counties throughout the state began undertaking certain efforts to remove noncitizens from their voter rolls following a lawsuit.

AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.