by Staff Reporter | Jun 6, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The Arizona Republican Party (Arizona GOP) joined President Donald Trump in the legal battle to require proof of citizenship to vote.
Chairwoman Gina Swoboda announced the Arizona GOP’s involvement on Wednesday. The state party filed an amicus brief with the Massachusetts District Court last week.
“The American people expect secure elections, not open invitations to fraud,” said Swoboda. “Arizona has led the nation with proof-of-citizenship laws for two decades, and we stand firmly behind President Trump’s efforts to protect the ballot. This is about safeguarding every legal vote — and stopping those who want to dilute it.”
Trump issued Executive Order 14248, “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” in March. Trump’s order directed the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to require within its national mail voter registration form documentary proof of citizenship as well as require state or local officials to record that applicants presented documentary proof of citizenship.
Per the president’s executive order, proper documentary proof of citizenship would only include U.S. passports, identification documents compliant with the requirements of the REAL ID Act of 2005, official military ID cards indicating an applicant is a U.S. citizen, or a valid federal or state government-issued photo ID indicating the applicant is a U.S. citizen or if the ID is otherwise accompanied by proof of citizenship.
The president also directed the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Government Efficiency to review the voter rolls and records of each state to verify citizenship and immigration status. Trump also directed each federal voter registration executive department or agency head to assess citizenship prior to providing federal voter registration forms to enrollees of public assistance programs.
Trump’s order also put an end to the acceptance of tardy ballots — the president restricted the reception of absentee and mail-in ballots to the Election Day deadline.
States who refuse to comply with the executive order would cease to receive federal funding.
Several left-wing organizations filed suit against the Trump administration in April to stop the order: the Brennan Center, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), ACLU of D.C., Asian Americans Advancing Justice, LatinoJustice, and Legal Defense Fund. These organizations filed on behalf of League of Women Voters of the United States, the League of Women Voters of Arizona, League of Women Voters Education Fund, Hispanic Federation, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote, and OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates.
That same month, a federal court issued a ruling temporarily blocking the executive order.
The Arizona GOP amicus brief argued the EAC maintains statutory authority to require documentary proof of citizenship in voter registration, and that the executive order merely enforced existing laws rather than creating new ones.
While the Arizona GOP has issued its support of the president’s election policy, Attorney General Kris Mayes and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes have been fighting against it. Mayes and Fontes joined a 19-state coalition to sue Trump over that executive order.
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by Staff Reporter | Jun 4, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Evidence of voter fraud has been discovered in Arizona and seven other states, allegedly.
The secretary of state of Ohio, Frank LaRose, announced Tuesday he had discovered and submitted evidence of voter fraud in Arizona as well as Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
The alleged voter fraud consisted of noncitizen voter registration and double votes. LaRose discovered the alleged voter fraud during reviews of the Ohio Voter Registration Database by their Public Integrity Division.
The reviews yielded evidence indicating 11 individuals voted in the seven states and Washington, D.C.
LaRose passed along the findings to Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, along with the attorneys general of the other affected states and Washington, D.C.
“We must send a clear message that election fraud won’t be tolerated,” said LaRose. “Through the investigations of our Public Integrity Division’s Election Integrity Unit, we are rooting out lawbreakers so we can bring accountability and justice.”
In a press release, LaRose reminded voters that every single vote counted.
“Critics of Ohio’s election integrity efforts may try to minimize the significance of these referrals, as though some small amount of election crime is acceptable,” stated LaRose in a letter to Ohio Attorney General Yost. “Even one illegal vote can spoil the outcome of an election for the citizenry at large, whether it be a school levy, majority control of a legislative chamber, or even a statewide election contest.”
During her campaign for attorney general, Mayes dismissed claims of widespread voter fraud occurring in Arizona.
“Know what has been debunked repeatedly? Any indication of widespread, systemic voter fraud,” posted Mayes on X during her campaign run in 2022. “Many of us find the continuation of lies about that ‘truly appalling.’”
Mayes was declared the winner of the 2022 attorney general race, despite questions remaining of over 9,000 uncounted provisional ballots and their potential effect on her slim margin of victory over now-Congressman Abe Hamadeh. Mayes’ already-slim lead of over 500 votes dropped to under 300 after uncounted votes were discovered in Pinal County during a recount.
As of this report, Mayes hasn’t indicated whether she will act on the referral to her office for investigation or prosecution.
Mayes’ focus on election-related prosecution has largely concerned securing criminal convictions for President Donald Trump’s 2020 electors — a group she refers to as the “fake electors.” All of Mayes’ efforts to coordinate a plan of prosecution (with the help of a Washington, D.C. advocacy organization) and secure the indictments were for naught.
Late last month, the Maricopa County Superior Court ruled that Mayes must redo her entire case against the electors, citing her failure to instruct the grand jury on applicable provisions of the Electoral Count Act of 1887.
More recently, Mayes unsuccessfully attempted to prevent Cochise County from carrying out its plans for a new jail district election. The election was deemed necessary in court due to the 2023 election on the issue being invalid — nearly 11,000 eligible voters were left without ballots. Mayes pushed in court to have the county abide by the results of the flawed 2023 election.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Jun 3, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Although uncounted ballots from the highly contested 2022 election were destroyed, a former Arizona Secretary of State employee and current reporter is claiming that Congressman Abe Hamadeh is delusional for believing counties followed the law.
Last November, all ballots from the 2022 election were destroyed in accordance with Arizona law. Over 9,000 of those destroyed and allegedly valid ballots were never counted in the election — all provisional votes that may have resulted in Hamadeh winning the attorney general’s race over then-Democratic candidate and current attorney general Kris Mayes.
One of those ballots belonged to the husband of State Senator Wendy Rogers, according to the lawmaker.
These provisional ballots belonged to voters who were forced to cast provisionally due to failures by the state’s voter registration system, according to legal discoveries that would emerge over the course of Hamadeh’s challenge of the election.
The counties reportedly did not discover the thousands of uncounted provisional ballots due to a delay in response from the counties to Hamadeh’s legal team. The tardiness of the counties’ response times — along with a superior court judge’s months-long delay in signing his orders — jeopardized and ultimately resulted in the defeat of Hamadeh’s legal challenge to the 2022 election.
The statewide recount announced late December 2022 reduced Mayes’ lead over Hamadeh from just over 500 votes to less than 300 votes out of millions of ballots cast. The slashed lead resulted from major ballot-counting errors by Pinal County. The county failed to account for nearly 400 votes cast for Hamadeh and about 100 for Mayes due to “human error” — a vote difference of over 500 that grew Hamadeh’s margin.
About 70 percent of Election Day votes were for Hamadeh.
In an X post on Monday, Hamadeh accused Democrats of stealing the 2022 attorney general’s race.
“No, they stole [the election],” said Hamadeh. “Burned 9,000 uncounted ballots.”
Yet, the former Secretary of State staffer and data and elections reporter for ABC 15 Arizona, Garrett Archer, called Hamadeh “delusional” and unserious for reminding the public of the uncounted ballots that were destroyed and claiming the possibility of those ballots being valid.
“Abraham Hamadeh has a former troll run his social media. I have to think this is coming from that person. Because this take is delusional,” said Archer. “Why do people take this garbage seriously? Is it just a game or is it a complete capitulation of critical thinking in favor of an emotion driven reaction?”
Beyond the thousands of destroyed uncounted ballots, it was argued by Hamadeh’s counsel in his case contending the 2022 election that Maricopa County included hundreds of invalid early ballots for Mayes.
Around the date the ballots were set to be destroyed last November, the Arizona Supreme Court rejected Hamadeh’s challenge to the 2022 election results.
The disenfranchisement of thousands of voters wasn’t an unlikely occurrence in the 2022 election. While secretary of state that year, Governor Katie Hobbs admitted about 6,000 Arizonans were mistakenly registered as federal-only voters.
A year later in November 2023, Hobbs issued what critics called a “confession” of sorts describing potential disenfranchisement caused by the state’s voter system in her Elections Task Force final report.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Jun 3, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
For the third year in a row, the Arizona governor made a bold statement for Pride Month.
Governor Katie Hobbs again raised the Pride flag stories above the American flags on the Executive Tower on Monday in recognition of Pride Month. Hobbs pledged her loyalty to advancing and protecting LGBTQ+ ideologies.
“I’m proud to fly the Pride banner from the Executive Tower in celebration of Pride Month,” said Hobbs. “I will always stand for the freedom of Arizonans to be who they are, love who they love, and live with dignity and without fear.”
These flags are technically an expansion of the original rainbow-based Pride flag because they include the colors light pink, light blue, and white to represent transgenderism as well as black and brown to represent people with brown or black skin tones.
Pride Month was first officially recognized by the federal government in 1999 under President Bill Clinton, initially called “Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.” Then, in 2011, President Barack Obama expanded Pride Month recognition into what it consists of today.
During his first term in 2017, President Donald Trump didn’t offer federal recognition of Pride Month.
However, the first Pride Parade in Arizona took place in Phoenix in 1981 — about a decade after the first pride marches occurred in response to the 1970 Stonewall Riots in New York. The riots erupted following a police raid on a gay bar in Manhattan and lasted nearly a week.
Hobbs has continued her commitment to Pride Month despite the growing reluctance of other major cultural players to continue doing so. A frequent supporter of LGBTQ+ ideologies, Google, announced earlier this year it would no longer highlight Pride Month by default on Google Calendar. The corporation said the continued recognition of Pride Month wasn’t “scalable or sustainable,” citing the burden of recognizing the ever-increasing number of “cultural moments” globally.
Hobbs has flown the Pride flags above the American flags every summer since taking office.
During last summer’s Pride Month, Hobbs vetoed legislation guaranteeing equality of care for gender transition reversals, dubbed the “Detransitioner Bill of Rights.” This year, Hobbs vetoed bills limiting school locker room usage by gender, barring gender changes on birth certificates, preventing any funding to higher education institutes teaching students about gender identity, and precluding legal recognition of gender transitions.
During her first Pride Month as governor, Hobbs used an Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) drone to film the Pride flags. Reporting on the matter was delayed until the following year because it took the governor’s office nine months to respond to public records requests.
As reported initially, ADOT drone usage is intended for inspections and surveys of work concerning state infrastructure.
Hobbs also used state time to hold several ceremonies to watch the unfurling of the flags from the balcony and then admire the flags from the ground below, followed by an hour-long “Pride Roundtable” with those same guests.
Hobbs’ first executive order expanded discrimination protections to include prohibitions against “gender identity” discrimination in state employment and contracts.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Jun 1, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Maricopa County’s homeless population has increased since last year.
The county’s recent Point in Time (PIT) homelessness count reflected a three percent increase in the homeless population since the 2024 count. The number of homeless recorded in Maricopa County during the PIT this year amounted to over 9,700; that number was about 9,400 last year.
Over 80 percent of those within the PIT count were adults over the age of 25. 64 percent of the homeless population were male, 35 percent of the homeless population were female, and one percent of the homeless population self-identified as transgender, non-binary, questioning, culturally specific identity, different identity, or more than one gender. This PIT count marked a departure from the past estimates, in which 50 percent of homeless on average were male.
37 percent of the homeless were white; 27 percent were Black, African American, or African; 24 percent were Hispanic; six percent were multi-racial; four percent were American Indian, Alaska Native, or indigenous; one percent were Asian; less than one percent were Middle Eastern or North African; and less than one percent were Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.
The county described the increase as being “on par with recent years.”
This year’s PIT count was one percent higher than the total for 2023.
The unsheltered count increased by 28 percent, and the number of those marked as sheltered decreased by 16 percent. 47 percent of those sheltered were in emergency shelter, transitional housing, or Safe Haven programs.
The county counts those living within the Safe Outdoor Space (SOS) as unsheltered. SOS is a structured camping ground set aside for homeless individuals. SOS provides restrooms, showers, meal service, property storage, and 24/7 security. The city spent over $13 million from Arizona Department of Housing funds to establish the homeless campground.
53 percent of those marked as unsheltered were recorded as living on the streets “or other place not meant for human habitation.”
In a press release on this latest PIT count, Maricopa County blamed the homelessness increase on the reduction in federal funding and the increased cost of living.
“Between 2024 and 2025, federal funding expired for more than 1,000 shelter beds across the region,” stated the county. “The conditions leading to homelessness locally have not improved since last year. These include high rental costs and limited access to supportive services such as long-term care for older adults and mental health services. The landscape for funding remains challenging in light of proposed federal cuts to rental assistance and social service programs.”
The co-chair of the Maricopa Regional Continuum of Care (CoC), Rachel Milne, said more funding would decrease homelessness.
“Communities across our region, including the City of Phoenix, have been working hard to fill the gaps left by the expiration of temporary federal funds this past year,” said Milne. “Those funds did a lot for our community: they helped us design new ways to house and serve our unsheltered neighbors; they provided supportive services for seniors, families, and individuals to help end their homelessness; and they allowed us to increase the number of shelter beds available to provide a safe, indoor space for thousands of people in need. We will continue to seek local, state, and federal funding to ensure that we can help prevent and end homelessness in our community.”
An investigative report released last year revealed the city of Phoenix spent at least $250 million on homelessness since 2021.
Since 1999, CoC has received over $550 million in funding. The county also supports around 32 homeless assistance programs with 11 agencies.
The county conducts PIT homelessness counts on one day every year using volunteers, staff, and outreach workers who carry out interview and observation survey responses.
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