by Staff Reporter | Feb 13, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Maricopa County’s former recorder, Stephen Richer, says Republican’s concerns over illegal alien voting are “bogus.”
The former elections leader for one of the nation’s biggest counties published that claim earlier this week in an opinion piece for The New York Times.
“Confirmed: non-citizens aren’t voting,” said Richer.
Richer cited state investigations into noncitizen voting in which voter rolls were cross-checked with citizenship status. The recorder said concerns over illegal alien voters were a myth jeopardizing democracy.
“People largely aren’t willing to risk their status in the United States — the land of economic opportunity — for the ability to cast one more vote out of hundreds of thousands or millions in a state and hundreds of millions in the country,” stated Richer. “Playing politics with the idea of fraudulent voters and stolen elections comes at a real cost to American confidence in our elections. It’s an affront to our democracy and to all those who work to deliver free and fair elections. It’s also an ominous sign for where things may be heading this year.”
However, the cross-check referenced by Richer doesn’t address the common practice of identity theft among illegal aliens. Voter rolls can only confirm the citizenship of the individual listed, not of an individual who may be usurping that identity.
According to some federal estimates, 75 percent of illegal aliens are using stolen identities. There’s about 11.5 million illegal aliens in the country per the latest federal estimate, which would mean over 8.6 million illegal aliens use stolen identities under those estimates. Around 7 million of those illegal aliens claim employment per the government.
Of the smaller number of illegal aliens whose employment is recorded on the books, the government’s low estimate for illegal alien identity theft totals over one million.
With that range of estimates, there may be anywhere from 20,000 to 170,000 illegal aliens living under stolen identities in each state, assuming equal population distribution.
A day after The New York Times published Richer’s opinion piece, the Department of Justice announced the case of another illegal alien convicted of voter fraud.
An illegal alien from Columbia voted in the 2024 presidential election under a stolen identity, which she’d been using for over 20 years. Lina Maria Orovio-Hernandez, 59, had obtained a Real ID and received over $400,000 in stolen federal benefits.
Those stolen benefits included over $250,000 in Housing and Urban Development rental assistance. Orovio-Hernandez also obtained eight other state IDs in addition to the Real ID she obtained in Massachusetts.
Since leaving the recorder’s office, Richer has taken up elections-related leadership positions that advance claims similar to the ones he made in his most recent opinion piece, to include senior practice fellow in American democracy with the Harvard Kennedy School and adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute.
Richer pulled away from the Republican Party during the 2024 election when he announced his intent to vote for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
Other illegal aliens have voted in elections without the use of identity theft.
Last month, an illegal alien pleaded guilty to voting in the 2020 election.
Last December, two illegal aliens were indicted for voting in the November 2020 general election.
Last November, an illegal alien from Mexico elected to be the local mayor was charged for having voted illegally numerous times over his decades spent in the U.S.
Last August, a Canadian citizen voted in two federal elections, once in 2022 and in 2024.
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by Staff Reporter | Feb 12, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Tesla CEO and former Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk is urging the federal government to ban mail-in voting.
Musk and other top Republican leaders have signaled support for greater federal intervention in state and local elections.
“Voter ID and in-person voting is the only way to save democracy,” said Musk. “Critical to avoid fraud.”
Although X influencers said Musk’s comments were “breaking news,” the SpaceX CTO has advocated for in-person voting, along with ID requirements, for years.
“We should require government ID and in-person voting (unless valid medical/military/etc excuse), like other countries do or like if you want to buy beer,” said Musk in a comment over two years ago.
In the summer of 2024, Musk also advocated against electronic and drop box ballots. Musk said additional voting methods beyond in-person voting created additional variables that made it much more difficult to detect fraud.
“When combined with mail-in ballots, the system is designed to make it impossible to prove fraud,” said Musk. “Mail-in and drop box ballots should not be allowed, as cameras on the in-person voting stations would at least prevent large-scale fraud by counting how many people showed up vs ballots cast.”
Last week, Musk backed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, legislation to amend a gap in citizenship proof existing in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. The SAVE Act would require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote in federal elections.
Proof of citizenship would include a REAL ID-compliant ID, a passport, military ID with proof of U.S. birth, government-issued photo ID card with proof of U.S. birth, or a government-issued photo ID along with a certified birth certificate, an extract from a U.S. hospital record of birth, a final adoption decree, a consular report of birth abroad, a naturalization certificate or certificate of citizenship, or an American Indian card.
“It must be done or democracy is dead,” said Musk.
Rep. Andy Biggs, candidate for Arizona governor, said the bill wasn’t controversial as the media portrayed it.
“It’s not controversial to require proof of citizenship and a photo ID to vote — countries around the world require both!” said Biggs.
Reps. Eli Crane and Paul Gosar also support the legislation. The pair signed onto a letter urging the Senate to act on the legislation.
Although Musk departed DOGE over certain policy agreements earlier last year, he does agree with President Donald Trump on mail-in voting.
“No mail-in ballots (except for illness, disability, military, or travel),” posted Trump to Truth Social.
Trump had made his criticism of mail-in ballots during public conversations urging the passage of the SAVE Act, though the legislation doesn’t ban mail-in voting. Instead, the legislation would require mail voters to submit an application to receive their ballot.
The president has also issued another call to action not included in the SAVE Act: federalizing elections.
Last Monday the president said in an interview that the federal government should take over elections from the states. He proposed the takeover during the debut of former FBI director Dan Bongino’s newly resurrected podcast. Bongino will also return to his role as a Fox News contributor.
“We should take over the voting in at least many places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” said Trump. “We have states that are so crooked and they’re counting votes.”
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Dr. Thomas Patterson | May 26, 2023 | Opinion
By Dr. Thomas Patterson |
Elections aren’t being stolen. But they are carried out under rules devised by one side for their benefit.
The Left loves our election system and why wouldn’t they? It has been a boon for them. They can win elections even when all seems lost. They have learned to exploit, through both legal and extra-legal means, the opportunities presented by bulk-mail voting, ballot harvesting, and lack of voter ID requirements. So, they falsely insist our procedures are virtually fraud-proof, and that attempts to improve election security are racially motivated “voter suppression.”
In fact, voter fraud is not all that rare and is easy to commit. It is hard to detect because victims are unaware that their vote has been canceled and so are unlikely to complain.
In New York, 63 undercover agents went to the polls, giving the names of individuals who had died, moved, or were incarcerated. All but two were given ballots, including young people impersonating voters three times their age.
A television reporter in Florida, on his own, turned up 94 non-citizens who had voted. Elections have been overturned because of voter fraud in Miami, Florida, East Chicago, Indiana, in Essex County, New Jersey, and Greene County, Alabama among other locales.
And who can forget Al Franken’s 312 vote victory in Minnesota’s Senate race, when later over one thousand felons (most probably Democrat voters) were found to have voted.
In 2020, the Pacific Interest Legal Foundation published a meticulous analysis of voter databases in which 144,000 cases of potential voter fraud were documented. These included dead voters, voters who had moved, and voters who supposedly lived in vacant lots, restaurants, and gas stations.
The report was sent to the 42 states in which fraud was uncovered. Not a single official or prosecutor asked for the relevant information for their state. Not one. The stunning New York undercover operation also garnered little attention, either from media or law-enforcement agencies. Neither did the Florida reporter’s discoveries. You see the pattern.
Fraud must be looked for to be detected and most election officials aren’t that enthusiastic about investigating for fraud. Why give yourself a black eye?
Honest researchers admit no one knows how much fraud is out there. Defenders of the status-quo like to point out the lack of proven fraud cases associated with mail-in voting, but unless someone confesses, the crime is essentially non-detectable.
Look at how bulk-mail compares with in-person voting, long the gold standard of election security. At the voting site, voters are protected from undue influence. Only after the list of eligible voters is checked and their ID is presented are they given a ballot. They are monitored while they vote. The secrecy of the ballot is maintained at all times. Finally, a formal chain of custody assures that ballots are handled securely until counted.
By contrast, bulk-mail voting, in Arizona and other states, begins with unrequested ballots being mailed to millions of names on poorly maintained voter lists, some of whom don’t give a hoot about voting. Most ballots are received by their intended recipients, voted, and returned. But others get lost in the mail or are delivered to people who have moved or died. Yet others go to voters, some mentally incapacitated, who are “helped” by third parties to cast their vote. Some ballots are even sold.
Many of the votes are returned by “ballot harvesting,” where party activists collect the ballots and then return them or place them in a dropbox. There are no chain of custody violations, because there is no chain of custody.
Finally, signature matching is used as a substitute for actual ID verification. But signature matching is an imprecise “art”—with no objective standards—which has been demonstrated many times to be unreliable.
Bulk-mail voting is popular and growing, both with those who innocently appreciate its convenience and with those who cherish the inexplicable election wins that can be achieved by it.
But the value of a vote in a democratic society depends on the integrity with which it is cast and counted. A majority of Americans don’t believe their elections are secure, nor will they until we reject voting processes that are so porous to fraud and deceit.
Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.
by Kim Miller | Sep 22, 2022 | Opinion
By Kim Miller |
Are you considering voting for a Democrat, or not voting for a Republican because you think they’re crazy?
If you’re someone who votes according to the “candidate I like,” rather than the political party, consider what RESULTS your vote will bring to America, Arizona, and your family. A candidate’s likability and respectfulness mean nothing if their actions bring destruction.
You may like a Democrat as a person, and they may seem “reasonable” compared to the Republican alternative, but gone are the days when you could assume both parties have the same goals for America with different ideas to achieve them. Today’s Democrats have the opposite vision for America than Constitutional Republicans.
What is your vision for America, for your everyday life, for your family’s well-being? Don’t give your vote to a politician who will dismantle and eventually destroy your vision. Check the voting record and statements of ANY Democrat. (I’m not saying every Republican is wonderful; only that they will at least do far less damage than any Democrat.) Think I’m exaggerating? Look at what Democrat ideas have done to your daily reality:
THIS is what EVERY Democrat represents—no matter how “reasonable” a person they seem to be. Just look at the results of President Biden, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and virtually every Democrat in power—including every Congressperson. And don’t forget about Mark Kelly who ran as a moderate but votes 94% of the time with Democrats. Mark Kelly = Joe Biden. Katie Hobbs = woke insanity.
This is a different America than we had 20, 10, or even 1 year ago. And the main reason is a Leftist “long march through the institutions,” (Christopher Rufo) and a long strategy grounded in communism and socialism which has overtaken the Democrat party, big business, education, culture, law, and even medicine. Think about it. This is not the America we could have imagined even a few years ago.
Conrad Black sums up the RESULTS of Leftist Democrat policies:
“A disastrous and shaming flight from Afghanistan is described by President Joe Biden as ‘a triumphant success,’ while Dr. Anthony Fauci retires with dignity after doing terrible damage to the country with his nonsense about shutting schools, ‘droplets,’ the ups and downs of masking, the ‘abolition of hand-shakes’—almost all of it now thoroughly discredited.
Six years ago, no one could have imagined that these outrages would have occurred, much less that they would be accepted by a bedraggled, degraded, demoralized United States, its federal government in the hands of lawless and authoritarian myth-makers, applauded by the complicit national political media. Can this be America?”
What will your kids and grandkids experience if we keep putting Democrats in power?
It will only get worse.
That’s why a return to Constitutional Americanism is the only way to restore sanity, dignity, productivity, and hope to America.
And the surest way there is to elect Republicans (no matter how flawed one may be) to replace the destructive RESULTS of Democrats (no matter how nice one may seem).
Kim Miller is the President and Founder of Arizona Women of Action. You can find out more about their work here.
by Terri Jo Neff | Jul 11, 2022 | News
By Terri Jo Neff |
A candidate for Maricopa County Attorney has retracted a comment she made last week which provided incorrect information that could lead to voter confusion during the current 2022 primary election.
Gina Godbehere is running on the Aug. 2 Republican primary election ballot against interim County Attorney Rachel Mitchell. And with Maricopa County’s election process under intense scrutiny since late 2020, voters cannot be blamed for presuming candidates have taken the time to get a good grasp on election procedures.
But Godbehere, an attorney and former prosecutor, raised eyebrows July 7 with a campaign newsletter which included a “note of caution” to voters on the county’s Active Early Voting List (AEVL).
The AEVL allows voters to receive their primary ballot by mail. Once completed, the ballot can be returned by postage-prepaid mail, placement in an official drop box, hand delivery to the county recorder’s office, or dropping it off at one Maricopa County’s 200+ voting centers.
The completed ballots must be received by the county recorder by 7 p.m. on Aug. 2, regardless of which return option is chosen.
Godbehere’s newsletter, however, incorrectly described what happens if a voter waits until Aug. 2 “to walk your early ballot into a voting center” and drop it off in a ballot box. In that situation, Godbehere claimed AEVL voters will have their ballot deemed “provisional” which she said meant the ballot would be “counted last” 7 to 10 days after the election.
Various election officials told AZ Free News there is nothing in Arizona law or the state’s Elections Procedures Manual referring to any dropped off ballot as provisional. In fact, the term provisional only applies to ballots cast in-person under specific circumstances.
On Monday, Godbehere’s campaign issued a statement admitting the mistake.
“These ballots are not provisional, but regular ballots,” the statement reads. “We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.”
Maricopa County voters with questions about the election process can call 602-506-1511 or email voterinfo@risc.maricopa.gov
Godbehere and Mitchell are vying to be the Republican who takes on Democrat Julie Gunnigle in a Nov. 8 special election to serve out the remainder of former County Attorney Allister Adel’s term through the end of 2024.
Adel resigned under pressure in March and died the next month.
