Fontes defends decision not to disclose voter names

According to the lawsuit, upon learning about glitch in state driver’s license database resulting in incorrect voter registrations for more than 200,000 Arizonans, Hamilton’s group filed a public records request asking for “a subset of the state’s voter registration database that contains only those registered (active and inactive) voters who” were part of the data failure.

Days later, the Secretary of State’s Office responded that the records “will be available for inspection as soon as possible and to the extent the law permits access. But there won’t be access until the 2024 general election.”

Fontes’ office said releasing the information now “would create confusion, chaos, uncertainty and consternation among the public – all of which are avoidable and, indeed, should be avoided in an ongoing election in which we expect record turnout.”

Fontes told the court he was concerned about Hamilton’s plans to share the data with members of the Arizona Legislature. If the data were made public, Hamilton told the court she would share it with county registrars, as well as legislative leadership and legislative election committee leaders who were hotbeds of conspiracy theories.

“I will fight tooth and nail to get many of these people on this list. They will not act responsibly with this list,” Fontes said of state lawmakers, adding that to understand his concerns, “all you have to do is look at their Twitter accounts.”

The Arizona Legislature has been a hotbed of election conspiracy theories since 2020, when some state lawmakers held a news conference making false claims of election fraud. They held the event at a Phoenix hotel because then-House Speaker Rusty Bowers would not allow it to be held at the Capitol.

Arizona Senate leadership hired conspiracy theorists with no auditing experience to conduct a partisan hand count of the 2020 election – based on the premise that the election was stolen from Donald Trump – only to find more votes for President Joe Biden than the original count. and no evidence of fraud. The Legislature’s two election committees, and especially one in the Senate, often promote prominent election deniers and other conspiracy theorists.

Former and current members of the Legislative Assembly also encouraged people to watch dropboxes for evidence of voter fraud, although not a single case of widespread fraud has been proven.

Fontes said in court Monday that state lawmakers cannot be trusted with voter data and expressed concern about the possibility of third parties gaining access to data that Fontes said is incomplete.

The glitch, which was first discovered last month, meant that some Arizonans who received driver’s licenses before 1996 were incorrectly flagged as having provided proof of citizenship, a requirement to register to vote in the Grand Canyon State.

The error in the database used by the state Department of Motor Vehicles affects people with licenses issued before 1996 who have since received replacements. According to the Secretary of State’s Office, the affected voters had been registered to vote for decades but were never required to prove their citizenship due to “data coding oversight” in the system.

The office said affected voters included 79,000 Republicans, 61,000 Democrats and 76,000 listed as “other parties.”

Arizona residents who cannot provide proof of U.S. citizenship are only allowed to vote in federal elections after voters in 2004 approved a ballot measure requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote.

Arizona is the only state that requires proof of citizenship to register to vote. Only federal voters in Arizona, like all voters in other states, sign an affidavit affirming that they are U.S. citizens.

After Maricopa County Recorder Steven Richer asked the Arizona Supreme Court last month to force county election officials to send affected voters federal-only ballots, the high court ruled that there was nothing in state law allowing county registrars to unilaterally change voter registration status.

But the court noted that state law allows for challenges to the registration status of individual voters, and that county registrars must consider any such challenges to the registration of affected voters.

Fontes said his office strongly believes in transparency, but releasing the list could harm voters. He also expressed concern about possible violence. Concerns about unproven voter fraud have led to actual acts of violence, and federal officials warn that these beliefs could incite others to further violence as elections approach.

“We are already in danger. You’ve already seen the threats. We have already seen people leaving the profession,” Fontes told the court, saying he and others in his profession now expect to be the target of violent threats. “They (voters on the list) didn’t choose anything.”

Fontes also said the records — in the form Hamilton’s group requested — were not available. He added that while there are likely 218,000 voters affected, the number of voters without actual documentation of citizenship could be much lower, but work is still underway to identify these people.

The court also heard from Hamilton, a conservative activist who requested the records.

Hamilton admitted in court that her organization is made up mostly of conservatives, but she maintained that her nonprofit is nonpartisan and does not endorse candidates. A brief review of Hamilton’s posts on social network X, formerly Twitter, shows that Hamilton supported a number of Republican and conservative causes.

“VOTE JUSTIN HEAP FOR REGISTER”, Hamilton wrote in one post on X. In another case, it tells the user: “I don’t deserve freedom” for sharing a story criticizing Heap.

Justin Heap is a Republican state representative from Mesa and the Republican candidate for Maricopa County Recorder in the November election. Although Heap refuses to answer questions about whether he believes the 2020 and 2022 elections were stolen from Republican candidates, he has close ties to election deniers and voted for proposed legislation based on conspiracy theories about election fraud.

Hamilton told the court she does not associate with any groups or people who promote violence or harassment. The Arizona Mirror confirmed that Hamilton was a group chat administrator for the America First Polling Project.

AFPP published chat logs that the group provided to journalists Distributed denial of secrets show organization collaborated with militia groups keep an eye on ballot drop boxes in 2022. The chats also showed how election misinformation forced group members to make threats of violence.

An attorney representing Fontes’ office repeatedly asked Hamilton if she could guarantee that if the data were made public, it would not fall into the hands of anyone other than members of the Arizona Legislature and county recorders.

“You can’t guarantee to this court what these people will or won’t do with it, can you?” defense attorney Craig Morgan asked Hamilton a second time.

“I disagree with the basis of your question,” Hamilton responded, saying she refuses to challenge the motives of members of the state Legislature.

Lawyers representing Hamilton said elected officials can be trusted with the information and disagreed with the secretary of state’s argument that releasing the data could violate federal law. Driver Privacy Protection Act which controls what information can or cannot be transmitted.

The group’s lawsuit initially sought the release of records before early voting began on Oct. 9.

There is no evidence that a significant number of affected voters who have lived in Arizona for decades are undocumented immigrants. The data showed that non-citizen voting is extremely rare.

Gov. Katie Hobbs has ordered an independent review of the Department of Motor Vehicles’ registration system in light of the discovery of improperly registered voters.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney did not say when he expects to rule in the case.