Judge tells Justin Heap, Arizona officials to fix ballot access for 25 citizens

Twenty-five Maricopa County voters, all confirmed U.S. citizens, could miss out on voting this election. On Friday, a judge told the county recorder and state officials to sit down together and fix it.

The clock is ticking.

Friday is the last day for early ballots to go out in the mail, and Election Day is Nov. 3.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes sued Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap this week. They want a judge to put the 25 voters back on the active rolls and make sure they get their ballots.

The problem traces back to a glitch in state driver’s license records. For years, it let some longtime voters register without the proof of citizenship Arizona requires.

In February, Heap ran about 61,000 of those voters through SAVE, a federal citizenship database known to make mistakes. It flagged 207 people as possible noncitizens. Heap marked them “not eligible,” which means no mail ballot, and sent their names to prosecutors.

In September, County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said that of the 60 flagged voters who had cast ballots before, 52 are citizens and only eight are not.

Heap has since cleared 27 of the 52. The other 25 are still blocked.

Mayes and Fontes say Heap had no right to downgrade them in the first place.

Under state law, they argue, a recorder needs proof that someone isn’t a citizen, not just a database flag. They also want the 25 to get regular ballots, not provisional ones that may not count.

Justin Heap says citizenship paperwork is still needed

Heap says the voters’ citizenship isn’t in question, but the paperwork is.

“Look, if they’re citizens, and we’re not arguing they’re not, the problem is that Arizona requires that we have documented proof of citizenship, and I can’t find anywhere in the law that states that we can just take another agency’s word for it,” Heap told KTAR News 92.3 FM.

In court Friday, the attorney general’s office said it has the voters’ driver’s license records ready. Heap’s attorney, James Rogers, said the recorder could restore the voters that day once he reviews them.

The two sides were set to meet Friday afternoon.

Without a deal, they’ll be back in court Monday.

KTAR News 92.3 FM reporter Heidi Hommel contributed to this report.

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