Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP) Chair Gina Swoboda told The Arizona Sun Times that Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes did not contact her office to reschedule a meeting this week to discuss the 218,000 registered voters who may not be citizens of the United States.
It was revealed last month that Arizona does not have proof of citizenship records for nearly 100,000 voters. Fontes raised a second election integrity issue to Swoboda last week when the AZGOP chair issued a press release announcing a meeting between the Arizona Secretary of State and the party.
Swoboda told The Sun Times that Fontes’ office said the meeting needed to be rescheduled for Monday, but when that day came, Fontes merely issued a press release revealing the actual number of voters missing proof of citizenship documentation is 218,000.
Though Fontes has not met with Republicans since he made the revelation, he told ABC 15 Arizona on Tuesday that his office does not have an estimate for the number of non-citizen voters.
“What we know is we don’t know for sure,” Fontes told the outlet when asked how many of the 218,000 registered voters “could have integrity issues.”
He told the outlet, “The problem that we have is that we don’t know that we can depend on the data right now.”
Swoboda told The Sun Times that Fontes’ comments to the media are more than he’s offered to Arizona’s largest political party and are not instilling confidence in Republicans.
“He just issued a press release, he didn’t reschedule the call,” Swoboda told The Sun Times. “I am not satisfied with the lack of transparency and the lack of answers.”
The Arizona Supreme Court declared last month the 98,000 voters who lack documentation of citizenship will be allowed to vote on Election Day in November, and Swoboda said it is vital Republicans understand whether the approximately 120,000 voters identified by Fontes this week fall under the legal opinion.
“He’s not being very specific in his public statements,” said Swoboda, revealing concerns about whether all 218,000 voters suffer from the same citizenship documentation issues as the 98,000 identified last week.
She confirmed, “I’m not getting any confirmation that this is the exact same situation as the first 98,000 voters, and I find that highly problematic.”
Swoboda told The Sun Times, “There will be further action taken by the Republican Party of Arizona to ensure that everything is above board.”
She added that Fontes is “just kind of blithely asserting that the initial State Supreme Court opinion applies to this bucket while simultaneously not confirming that this is the exact same group.”
When asked if such action would be taken prior to Election Day, the AZGOP chair said, “it has to be.”
Swoboda told The Sun Times, “I am going to do my damnedest to get transparency and figure out what’s going on. I have a responsibility to the voters and to the people.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
