America First Legal notched a "huge win" Friday after an Arizona court ruled that Maripoca County must provide the names of hundreds of thousands of ineligible voters currently on the rolls, Breitbart reported. Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is required to hand over the list by Monday.
The conservative public interest group had requested the list after Fontes revealed that an error in the registration system allowed 98,000 voters through without proof of residency. Several thousand have been discovered since, but the Secretary of State has still failed to release the records.
AFL filed a lawsuit requiring the entire list of 218,000 ineligible voters to be released. "As the Court admonished the parties prior to and during the hearing, the issue for the Court to decide is whether the records that Plaintiff requested must be released pursuant to Arizona’s public records law," the decision said.
The problem was facilitated by Arizona's practice of allowing noncitizens to vote in federal elections. Only citizens are allowed to vote in state elections, which creates a system whereby some voters can register and cast ballots in federal elections, but not for Arizona.
In a post to X, formerly Twitter, Thursday, AFL touted a "huge win" in the state. "We just WON our lawsuit against the AZ Secretary of State for illegally withholding his list of the 218K+ registered voters who did not provide proof of citizenship," the post said.
"He must produce his complete list of these voters by MONDAY — before Election Day," the post added. Attached is an image of the order showing the information must be shared by noon on November 4.
🚨🗳️BREAKING NEWS — HUGE WIN
We just WON our lawsuit against the AZ Secretary of State for illegally withholding his list of the 218K+ registered voters who did not provide proof of citizenship.
He must produce his complete list of these voters by MONDAY — before Election Day. pic.twitter.com/RN7G6xU6RL
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) October 31, 2024
Meanwhile, the good news could persist for former President Donald Trump in the Grand Canyon State. Kari Lake, who is running for U.S. Senate, thinks Trump could flip the state.
"I believe we’re going to see a big number of Democrats in Arizona vote for Trump and vote for Kari Lake because they recognize the Democrat Party is not the old Democrat party," Lake predicted. However, it's difficult to know how elections will turn out when there's evidence that people casting ballots may be ineligible to do so.
By all indications, the presidential race is locked in a statistical tie going into Election Day. Even in Arizona, where FiveThirtyEight is currently predicting +2.1 for Trump, the presidential race is nowhere near tied up for either candidate.
Because it will be so close, any fraud or ineligible voters casting ballots could sway an election. This list from Arizona comes as other states are having similar problems with pushback on purging ineligible voters.
On Friday, a Virginia judge sided with the Department of Justice in blocking the state from removing voters who aren't citizens from the rolls, NBC reported. Trump, who has repeatedly warned against noncitizens voting, railed against the decision by the "radical judge" following the ruling.
"The outrageous decision goes against the very bedrock of our democracy," Trump said. Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Younkin has vowed to appeal, but it won't come in time for this week's presidential election.
There's no reason voting should be this chaotic in the U.S. in modern times. It's almost as if one political side is unwilling to address a problem that benefits them.
