Voters in Virginia and Arizona sent letters to their states’ leading election officials on Tuesday, demanding they correct their jurisdictions’ allegedly inaccurate voter rolls in accordance with federal law.
Addressed to Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Virginia Commissioner of Elections Susan Beals, the letters — which are supported by the Honest Elections Project (HEP) — allege there are numerous localities in both states that are violating provisions of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). Passed in 1993, the NVRA mandates states make “a reasonable effort to remove the names of ineligible voters” — such as those who have died or moved — from their respective voter rolls.
In Arizona, the letter’s signatories claim a comparison of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2017-2021 American Community Survey “of citizen voting age population” with publicly available voter roll data shows “at least four counties have more registered voters than adult citizens over the age of 18” and “nine counties … have voter registration rates that exceed 90 percent of adult citizens over the age of 18—a figure that far eclipses the voter registration rate nationwide in recent elections.”
The letter additionally notes there is one county with a voter registration rate over 80 percent.
“Comparing the registered voter count to the 2017-2021 American Community Survey reveals that Apache (117.4%), La Paz (100.5%), Navajo (100.1%), and Santa Cruz (112.6%) Counties all have greater than 100% voter registration,” the letter reads. “In other words, there are more registered voters than eligible voters.”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 168.3 million of the country’s 231.6 million (72.7 percent) citizen voting-age population were registered to vote at the time of the 2020 election. Given this statistic, signatories are claiming the “abnormally high” registration rates in counties such as Cochise (93.4 percent), Maricopa (97.8 percent), and others “constitutes strong evidence that Arizona’s voter rolls are not being properly maintained.”
In total, the signatories are alleging 14 out of Arizona’s 15 counties have inflated voter rolls.
Regarding the letter to Beals, several Virginia voters are alleging similar failure by commonwealth election officials to administer accurate voter rolls. Using the same methodology described in the letter to Fontes, the aforementioned citizens claim there are 101 Virginia localities with erroneous voter rolls, including purportedly 43 counties and cities with “more registered voters than adult citizens over the age of 18” and 58 with “voter registration rates that exceed 90 percent of adult citizens over the age of 18.”
Earlier this year, the Virginia Department of Elections found nearly 19,000 dead voters on the state’s voter rolls. The discovery came weeks before Beals announced Virginia would be withdrawing from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a leftist-controlled voter roll maintenance group that inflates voter rolls by requiring member states to contact eligible but unregistered residents to register to vote.
“Failing to maintain the voter rolls puts public confidence in the election process at risk and creates an unnecessary potential for fraud. The law is clear; all states must ensure that they are taking the appropriate steps to properly maintain voter lists,” HEP Executive Director Jason Snead said in a statement. “We are proud to support these voters and the people of Arizona and Virginia, who are working to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat.”
Signatories of both letters say they plan to file lawsuits against their respective states if Arizona and Virginia fail to clean up their voter rolls within 90 days.
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