Concerns have arisen over the accuracy of a federal database used to verify voter registration in Maricopa County, Arizona. Secretary of State Adrian Fontes has expressed skepticism regarding claims that the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program is prone to errors.
Following a visit from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who criticized Arizona’s election processes, Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap reported that 137 individuals registered to vote in the county were identified as non-citizens. This revelation emerged from a review using the SAVE database, which checked over 61,000 voters whose eligibility was affected by a previous database communication flaw.
Heap, a Republican aligned with former President Trump, stated, “That review confirmed U.S. citizenship and full ballot eligibility for 58,782 voters. Those individuals’ registrations have already been updated to ensure they are able to receive a full ballot in future elections.” However, he also noted that “the review identified 137 registered voters who are not U.S. citizens. Of those, 60 individuals have voted in prior elections.”
This number represents a small fraction, approximately 0.005%, of the county’s 2.5 million voters. Despite this, Adrian Fontes, a Democrat and the current Secretary of State, raised doubts about the reliability of the SAVE program, citing Pro Publica’s report indicating the tool’s history of errors, particularly with naturalized citizens.
Fontes emphasized, “Further, it is widely documented that the SAVE program has a high error rate, thus requiring verification of any data used by that system to impact an individual’s voting rights.” He pointed out that the program has been utilized in Arizona as a means to access citizenship information unavailable through other databases.
Fontes also expressed concern over the use of the SAVE database to publicly accuse voters of being non-citizens without transparent verification processes. He highlighted the legal requirement for election officials to notify those whose registration validity is questioned, allowing them 35 days to resolve any issues.
“Any action that has been taken to cancel these voters without going through a verification process that is consistent with state law is highly concerning to me and likely illegal,” Fontes stated.
While the Recorder’s Office did not comment on the situation, it remains unclear if notifications were sent to the flagged individuals. Records requested by Votebeat reflected no such notices. Fontes has requested Heap to share details about the flagged voters, their current registration status, and the verification process used by the Recorder’s Office.
