Fontes, SOS Office Sued Over Voter Registration List

Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona, also known as EZAZ.org, is suing Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and the Secretary of State’s Office for violating election law by failing to release a list of over 218K voters who allegedly registered without proof of citizenship. America First Legal (AFL), run by Stephen Miller, former Senior Advisor to then-President Donald Trump, represents EZAZ.org/Strong Communities in the suit.

The lawsuit follows Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer’s Emergency Petition to the Arizona Supreme Court over his analysis that tens of thousands of voters improperly registered. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled on Sep. 20, 2024, that nearly 98,000 Maricopa County voters would be allowed to vote despite a software glitch preventing processing of their citizenship documents.

AFL filed an official request on behalf of EZAZ.org, demanding that Fontes produce a list of voters identified as unlawfully registered. Fontes issued a “bizarre” response accusing EZAZ.org of harassment and denying the request.

AFL responded, “Rather than treating constituents with respect and decorum, their response was a bombastic tirade that invoked a bizarre conspiracy theory accusing EZAZ.org of secretly planning to harass the voters on the list. There is, of course, no evidence to support Secretary Fontes’s conspiracy theory, and EZAZ.org has no intention of harassing anyone. Secretary Fontes also feebly claimed that compiling the list would be too hard for his staff. None of these excuses hold water. Fontes’s staff has already compiled the list–that’s how they know the number of affected voters. And there is no risk that these voters will be harassed–EZAZ.org’s mission is all about protecting voters.”

America First Legal Senior Counsel James Rogers explained: “There have been major failures in the administration of just about every general election in Arizona from 2016 until now. It’s no wonder that Arizonans’ trust in their electoral system is at an all-time low. And every time anyone expresses concern, how does Secretary Fontes react? Victim blaming.”

Rogers continued, “His patronizing response is always to attack voters for caring about the integrity of their system and expecting that public officials follow the law. But how can Arizonans trust their elections when the person in charge of administering them is so fervently opposed to basic transparency? That is not what Arizonans expect from their elected leaders. The law requires Secretary Fontes to produce these records, and AFL will work to hold him accountable until he does.”

AFL argues in its lawsuit, “By refusing public access to these records, the Defendants frustrate the core purpose of the Public Records Law, to ‘monitor the performance of the government officials.'”

The suit continues, “And because these records deal with a pressing issue of immediate public concern, time is of the essence. The Defendants should be ordered to immediately fulfill Plaintiff’s public records request.”

The Secretary of State’s Office, responding to a New York Post request, wrote, “We fear, especially based on SCF’s filings, that its true desire here is not to keep watch on government actions — which our public records laws are designed to facilitate — but instead harass and intimidate voters in the midst of an election and whose rights Secretary Fontes has already vindicated before Arizona’s highest court.”

AFL’s Miller responded in a statement, writing, “America First Legal continues to lead the fight for election integrity. We are suing the state of Arizona for refusing to provide the list of 218,000 voters who failed or refused to establish citizenship. It is absolutely imperative that we stop the dire threat of illegal alien voting, which is the gravest form of foreign election interference.”