Swing State to Partner With DHS to Remove Names From Voter Rolls [View all]
Source: Newsweek
Published Apr 13, 2025 at 6:04 PM EDT
Counties in Arizona, a state that flipped to President Donald Trump in last year's election after narrowly supporting former President Joe Biden in 2020, have agreed to work with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to review their voter rolls and verify the citizenship status of voters, according to court documents reviewed by Newsweek. Newsweek has reached out to a legal representative for the plaintiff and defendant as well as the DHS press team for comment via email on Sunday.
Why It Matters
Republicans have long sought stricter voter registration guidelines, saying that it would prevent voter fraud. The Republican-led House on Friday passed the SAVE Act, which stands for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, and, if it becomes law, would impose new federal requirements for proving citizenship when registering to vote.
Critics have pushed back on various voting eligibility and requirement proposals, saying there's little evidence of widespread voter fraud and new measures would make it more difficult for some Americans to vote. While some U.S. jurisdictions permit noncitizens to vote in certain local elections, only U.S. citizens, not illegal immigrants or visa holders, are eligible to vote in federal elections.
Arizona borders Mexico, making immigration a frequent focus of policy discussions. In 2024, director of race and ethnicity research at Pew Research Center, Mark Hugo Lopez, estimated around "250,000 undocumented immigrants live in Arizona," which is around 3.5 percent of Arizonans. Trump has pledged to launch the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history. The state, and Maricopa County in particular, have been at the center of voter fraud claims in recent years, especially after Trump lost the county in 2020, fueling widespread debate and misinformation about voter fraud, which there was no substantial evidence of.
Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/arizona-partner-dhs-remove-names-voter-rolls-2059210
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