All 15 counties in Arizona have agreed to cross-check records from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to verify the citizenship status of more than 40,000 registered voters who have not provided proof of citizenship. The agreement came as part of a settlement Wednesday to a lawsuit brought by America First Legal (AFL), which has declared victory over the result.

Complex Voter Rolls

The lawsuit was grounded in Arizona’s unique and complex voter registration system, which like the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) was designed as a workaround to an unfortunate Supreme Court ruling from the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

In a 2013 ruling (Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Ariz., Inc.), the Supreme Court held that states may not impose voter registration requirements for federal elections beyond the information collected under a federal voter registration form, created under the National Voter Registration Act. That form simply requires registrants to check a box affirming their U.S. citizenship on penalty of perjury, a meager bulwark against anyone taking steps to commit the greater crime of illegally voting in a U.S. federal election. However, a state may still deny a voter registration if the state has information establishing that the applicant is ineligible.

Not content to catch only the honest criminals, Arizona law requires documentary proof of citizenship and residency to vote. But, due to the Inter Tribal Council decision, Arizona may only require documentary proof of registrants seeking to vote in state and local elections.

As a result, Arizona maintains two voter rolls. One consists of federal-only registrants, who have failed to provide documentary proof of their citizenship and/or residency, and who may only vote in federal elections. The other list consists of people who have proven their citizenship and residency, and who may vote in federal, state, and local elections.

Federal-Only Registrants

According to the Arizona Secretary of State, Arizona had 48,843 federal-only registrants as of January 2, 2025. The topline number has led to headlines like “Arizona to Remove Almost 50K Non-Citizens from Voter Rolls,” which erroneously assumes that every (or nearly every) federal-only registrant on Arizona’s voter rolls is a noncitizen.

The secretary of State provides a table that divides the federal-only registrants by county and by the documentation they lack. Statewide in Arizona, there are 36,592 voters “without documented proof of citizenship,” 8,110 “without documented proof of residency,” and 4,141 “without documented proof of citizenship and residency.”

For starters, this means that 8,110 federal-only registrants in Arizona had provided documented proof of citizenship, while only 40,733 had not. Of the remaining 40,000-odd registrants, a large proportion of them could actually be U.S. citizens, as far as the state of Arizona knows. There are many possible explanations for why a citizen registering to vote would fail to provide proof of citizenship (lost mail, lost documents, lack of time, unfamiliarity with Arizona’s laws, or sheer laziness, to name a few).

Regular List Maintenance

Arizona’s voter law also requires county recorders to perform monthly maintenance on the federal-only voter list, removing voters found to be ineligible (most often from voters moving out-of-state) and transferring voters whose information was confirmed to the regular voter roll. AFL sued the county recorders for failing to use all available resources in performing this routine maintenance.

In particular, AFL sought to compel the county recorders to cross-check the federal-only voter list against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) records. DHS is the department that oversees Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), so they have the best records on noncitizens in the United States.

Two federal statutes authorize state and local officials to access citizenship information for any lawful purpose, AFL argued, and President Trump has ordered DHS personnel to cooperate with state and local officials.

Arizona may not know how many noncitizens are on its voter rolls right now. But cooperation with DHS will clear that issue up in short order.

“This settlement is a great result for all Arizonans,” declared AFL senior counsel James Rogers. “This will help County Recorders find and remove any aliens on their voter rolls. It will also potentially enfranchise federal-only voters whose citizenship is confirmed, which would allow them to vote in State and local elections.”