Highlights
- The U.S. Department of Justice sent Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes a letter Tuesday threatening criminal charges for election officials who count noncitizen ballots.
- A near-identical letter went to more than a dozen states; the Michigan version, signed by Harmeet Dhillon, demanded a response within five days.
- Fontes, a Democrat, called the letter politically motivated and said Arizona has required proof of citizenship to register since 2004.
- During the 2022 election, only two criminal convictions resulted from 3.4 million ballots cast, and neither involved a noncitizen.
The U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter Tuesday to Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes threatening to prosecute election officials who knowingly count noncitizen ballots or keep noncitizens on voter rolls, according to reporting by the Arizona Mirror.
A near-identical letter went to more than a dozen other states, ranging from Democrat-led Michigan to deep-red states like Georgia and Tennessee. The letter sent to Fontes was not immediately provided to the Arizona Mirror, but the three-page version sent to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon spelled out the exposure: "Any election officer, including the chief election officer of the state, who knowingly retains noncitizens on the state's (statewide voter registration list) or facilitates noncitizens in receiving and casting ballots could be subject to criminal liability."
Dhillon's letter referenced multiple federal laws detailing punishments for election workers and included a four-page memo on election officials' responsibilities under statutes including the National Voter Registration Act and the Civil Rights Act. Dhillon requested a response within five days explaining how Arizona complies with federal election laws.
Fontes pushed back in a written statement, calling the letter politically motivated and "insulting" for election workers across the state. "Arizona election officials have always worked to ensure that only eligible citizens are registered to vote, and we will continue following Arizona law — not directions that come from political rhetoric or intimidation," he said.
Arizona has required proof of citizenship to register to vote since 2004, when voters approved a ballot measure mandating the check. For nearly two decades it was the only state in the country with such a requirement.
Fontes has previously refused multiple requests from the Trump administration to turn over the state's voter registration logs, arguing that doing so would violate federal and state privacy laws. That standoff has escalated: in March, Fontes and Attorney General Kris Mayes jointly urged county recorders to notify their offices immediately if they received a federal grand jury subpoena for voter data.
Meanwhile, Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap, a Republican, has referred 137 voter registrations for investigation to the county attorney's office, though the federal database he used to flag those registrations has generated false positives in other states.
The scale of documented noncitizen voting in Arizona remains narrow. During the 2022 election, 22 allegations of voter fraud were referred for prosecution out of 3.4 million ballots cast, fewer than 0.001%. Two cases resulted in criminal convictions; neither involved a noncitizen.
Dhillon's five-day response deadline puts Fontes' office on the clock through the weekend.
Sources
Every factual claim in this article traces to one of the sources below. See how we work for the editorial process.
- azmirror.com retrieved 07/07/2026 23:24
Authored by The Scottsdale Signal. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 07/07/2026 23:24. Every claim traces to a source.
