The group lacks standing to request citizenship checks, and federal law prohibits voter list maintenance within 90 days of election, the judge ruled.
A federal judge has ruled against an Arizona group’s legal effort to force county officials to investigate ahead of the upcoming general election whether more than 40,000 registered voters are U.S. citizens.
U.S. District Judge Krissa Lanham, in a 22-page order issued on Oct. 11, denied a motion by Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction that would have compelled country recorders to immediately verify the citizenship status of individuals registered to vote only in federal elections.
The Strong Communities lawsuit centers on Arizona’s two-tiered voter registration system. Under state law, individuals who provide documented proof of citizenship can vote in all elections. However, the National Voter Registration Act allows those without such proof to register for federal elections by signing an avowal under penalty of perjury.
Currently, about 42,000 voters are registered under this federal-only system. Even though it remains illegal for noncitizens to vote, the lawsuit claims that Arizona county recorders are failing to comply with state laws requiring them to perform “list maintenance” to ensure that voter rolls are free of ineligible voters.
In her order, the judge determined that Strong Communities lacks standing to challenge the alleged failure of county officials to conduct the citizenship checks.
“Plaintiffs’ request raises no more than a ‘generalized grievance’ shared by every Arizona voter that elected officials must follow the law,” the judge wrote.
Lanham also noted that even if the plaintiffs had standing, their request to compel county recorders to submit citizenship verification requests to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was too close to the Nov. 5 election to be feasible.
“Plaintiffs waited until shortly before the election to file this lawsuit despite allegedly suffering irreparable harm since Arizona’s 2022 voter list maintenance laws went into effect,” the judge wrote.
Lanham also stated that Strong Communities had failed to show how their proposed relief would address the alleged harm, as federal law prohibits systematic voter list maintenance within 90 days of a federal election.
By Tom Ozimek
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