PHOENIX — The Arizona Secretary of State Office complied with a court directive to release the voter records of those affected by an MVD registration "glitch," which is an estimated 98,000 voters.
However, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said during a news conference that he fought against the order and was worried about how the information would be used.
"I have fought as hard as I could to keep your names and your personal identifying information away from the folks who I don't trust," Fontes said. "And I have good reason not to trust them with that specific information."
Earlier this year, state officials discovered that for the last 20 years, there was an error in Arizona's record-keeping system when it comes to verifying a voter's citizenship. The issue affected a specific group of residents who had been issued a driver's license before October 1996 and registered to vote after February 2004.
Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona filed a public records request last month for a complete list of the voters affected by the mishap. The secretary of state said this request could not be completed before Election Day, citing concerns for the safety of voters and the list's accuracy.
Judge Scott Blaney ruled Secretary Adrian Fontes had "not established by a preponderance of the evidence that production of the records would violate rights of privacy or confidentiality."
The secretary's office was then ordered by the judge to release datasets or communications generated in relation to the list of affected voters.
During a news conference on Nov. 4, Fontes said his and his office's job is to keep all Arizona voters safe.
"That includes the fight to try to keep your names and personal identifying information out of the hands of some folks whose motives haven't always been the purest," Fontes said during the news conference. "Particularly for those more or less 218,000 voters who for no fault of their own fall into that group of voters that many of the liars and conspiracy theorists have accused of being non-citizen voters."
Every person on the list released Nov. 4 has sworn under penalty of perjury that they are U.S. citizens and are eligible to vote, Fontes said.
"Thankfully, we have an Arizona Supreme Court that has indicated very, very clearly that every single one of these voters is eligible to vote and eligible to vote in every single election," Fontes said.
The Arizona Supreme Court also indicated that the glitch will be dealt with after the election, which is also when Fontes recommends voters affected by the list get in touch with their local election officials.
County officials will contact those on the list in the next year, Fontes said, to help people with their voter registration. But Fontes reiterated that this does not impact the 2024 election.
"We will discourage voters to contact your local election office right now," Fontes said. "Because they have an election to run right now and you are under no obligation whatsoever to provide documentation of citizenship if you are on this list."
The judge ordered the plaintiff to not contact any of the affected voters and they may not release any personally identifiable information of any affected voters to any other third parties before Nov. 6. But Fontes said he is still worried about the information that was released being used to intimidate voters.
"The state supreme court has flat out said 'you do not have to prove anything to anyone,'" Fontes said. "No one has the right to harass you at your home, demand identification from you, or otherwise."
If anyone harasses you or someone you know, Fontes said to contact the Secretary of State Office or your local law enforcement immediately.
"I am not happy with what is happening right now because I know there are a lot of people out there who are scared and worried," Fontes said. "But rest assured, we will continue to fight, we will aggressively move against those folks who intimidate Arizona's voters, and try to harass them just because of who they are or because of the lies and conspiracies that keep getting foisted on our voters by folks who mean this democracy harm."
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