Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is turning up the heat on Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap after Heap's office said a federal database flagged dozens of county voters as noncitizens. Fontes wants a detailed paper trail and is warning that any move to cancel registrations must follow state law to the letter so eligible voters are not knocked off the rolls by mistake.
In a letter to Heap, Fontes requested the names of the 137 people who were flagged, their current voter registration status and documentation showing how the Recorder’s Office notified them, according to KJZZ. He also pressed Heap to spell out what independent checks the office ran on the federal data before changing anyone’s registration.
Heap’s office says it ran 61,681 records through the Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE system and “confirmed U.S. citizenship and full ballot eligibility for 58,782 voters,” while identifying 137 registrants as noncitizens, 60 of whom the office said had voted in prior elections, according to a statement from the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office. The release also says the county referred those who cast ballots to the Arizona attorney general and the Maricopa County attorney for review.
What the SAVE Tool Is and Why Experts Are Nervous
The federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, was expanded to allow mass checks of voter rolls, but reporters and election officials say that rushed rollout has produced false positives and mismatches, particularly for naturalized citizens, in multiple states. A ProPublica investigation found SAVE’s expansion led to mistakes that had to be corrected in several jurisdictions, prompting officials to treat early lists with considerable caution.
Local election-watch reporters and experts say those initial tallies from SAVE often shrink once clerks cross-check other records such as motor-vehicle or Social Security files. As Votebeat noted, similar nationwide efforts have produced inflated counts that were later revised downward after verification.
Arizona’s 35-day Rule and the Legal Tightrope
Arizona law and the Secretary of State’s voter registration procedures require county recorders to send a forwardable notice giving a registrant 35 days to provide documentary proof of citizenship before cancelling a registration. The state guidance also directs recorders to notify prosecutors if a registration is cancelled after that statutory process, per the Arizona Secretary of State.
Fontes has asked Heap to clarify whether the Recorder’s Office followed those steps, and it remains unclear whether the required 35-day notices were mailed. Votebeat reported the Recorder’s Office told the outlet it had no responsive records when asked for copies of such notices.
The episode is unfolding against a broader federal push to use SAVE and related legislation to tighten citizenship verification on voter rolls. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently promoted the SAVE America Act during a visit to Arizona where she appeared alongside Heap, coverage noted by local outlets including AZFamily.
What happens next hinges on the records Heap produces and the follow-up checks by state and county officials. If the flagged names stand up under scrutiny, referrals could lead to further review. If many turn out to be false positives, officials will face tough questions about relying on a wobbly federal database to make decisions that cut to the heart of voting rights.
