Arizona attorney general sues Maricopa County recorder: demands immediate reinstatement of 25 wrongly flagged voters

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes sued Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap on October 21, asking a court to order the full reinstatement of 25 voters and the immediate mailing of ballots to those registered to vote by mail. The nonprofit election news outlet Votebeat reported the case on October 22 and updated it the same day.

The 25 voters had been falsely flagged as noncitizens by the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) data tool. Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell previously announced that investigators had confirmed 52 of the 60 referred voters who had cast ballots were U.S. citizens, but the lawsuit says Heap has kept 25 of them in "not eligible" status. Voters in that status remain on the rolls but do not receive mail ballots and must show proof of citizenship to vote in person. Absent court relief, the suit says, the 25 voters will be denied their right to vote in the 2026 general election, and "time is of the essence."

Mayes also asked the court for an injunction barring Heap from preventing the voters from casting ballots. Heap responded that Mayes had chosen "partisan political theater" and said he would not restore the registrations until his office received documentation proving citizenship: "A press conference is not proof of citizenship. Neither is a lawsuit." Kate Brophy McGee, chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, said on October 22 that the lawsuit was "an appropriate step" and that she believed the recorder would do the right thing. The case stems from Heap's referral this spring of 207 suspected noncitizen voters to prosecutors; 60 of them had previously voted, and only eight were ultimately confirmed to be noncitizens.

Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)

Photo: 位于 Phoenix 的亚利桑那州议会大厦。摄影：David Jiang，CC BY-SA 4.0，来源：Wikimedia Commons

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