Fontes loses appeal, turns over names of AZ voters affected by MIA database crash

The glitch, first discovered in late September, meant that some Arizonans who obtained driver’s licenses before 1996 were incorrectly labeled as having provided proof of citizenship, a requirement to register to vote in the Grand Canyon State since 2005.

The error in the database used by the state Division of Motor Vehicles affects people with licenses issued before 1996 that have since been replaced. The affected voters had been registered to vote for decades but had never been asked to prove their citizenship because of a “data coding oversight” in the system, the secretary of state said.

The office said affected voters include 79,000 Republicans, 61,000 Democrats and 76,000 who are not affiliated with either party.

Arizonans who cannot provide proof of US citizenship are only eligible to vote in federal elections after voters approved a ballot law in 2004 that required proof of citizenship to register to vote.

Arizona is the only state that requires proof of citizenship to register to vote. Undocumented immigrants vote incredibly rare.

The list will be given to county recorders, as well as Republican leadership in the Arizona Legislature, as well as the heads of the House and Senate election committees.

The Arizona Legislature has been a breeding ground for election conspiracy theories since 2020, when some state lawmakers held a press conference to make false allegations of election fraud. They held the event at the Phoenix Hotel because then-Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers would not allow it to be held at the Capitol.

Months later, GOP leaders in the Arizona Senate hired conspiracy theorists with no experience in auditing or election administration to conduct a partisan recount of the 2020 election — based on the assumption that the election was stolen from Trump — just to find more votes. for President Joe Biden than the original tally, and no evidence of fraud.

And the legislature’s two election committees often bolster prominent election deniers and other conspiracy theorists.

Past and present members of the legislature as well encouraged people to watch dropbox for evidence of voter fraud to corroborate the false claims that have been circulating since 2020.

“The judge ruled that AZSOS must release the 218,000 names it refused to release. I authorized those names this morning,” Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, said on Xformerly Twitter. “We will do everything possible to make our elections fair.”

In court last week, Hamilton did not respond to Fontes’ attorney’s question about whether she could guarantee the list would not get into the hands of a third party through legislative leaders.

Hamilton is closely associated with people who make unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.

Hamilton told the court that she does not associate with any groups or people who promote violence or harassment. But she was closely associated with the group that in 2022 cooperated with police groups to monitor ballot boxes in Arizona.

The Arizona Mirror confirmed that Hamilton was a group chat administrator for the America First Polling Project. AFPP chat logs, which the group provided to journalists, were leaked Denial of secrets is widespreadshow how the organization worked with those militias and how electoral disinformation prompted group members to threaten violence.

Two former high-ranking law enforcement officials supported Fontes in his appeal. Former Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone and former Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villasenor both filed amicus briefs in support of Fontes.

“Through their decades of collective law enforcement experience, they are intimately familiar with the risks citizens face in high-threat situations such as elections,” the two men said in their court filing. “They know and/or have had to respond to threats and harassment of individuals and know what factors and measures can exacerbate or mitigate such behavior.”

In their brief, they argued that releasing the names before Election Day and then releasing the list after Election Day could lead to voter intimidation and harassment because of the heightened emotions that arise when candidates win or lose.

The two former lawmen also pointed to cases in the past, such as agitators pretending to be an employee of the Yavapai Sheriff’s Office or gunmen showing up at receptions, fueled by election-rigging conspiracy theories, as evidence of possible future harm.

The document included a series of recent social media posts calling for violence and even the death of election commission officials over non-existent widespread claims of voter fraud directly linked to the list of affected voters.

“Yes, finally we can get revenge for 2020,” wrote one user. “Imprison all corrupt positions (sic) hang heads for treason!!!!”

However, this did not sway the court.