Arizona Restoring Voter Registration Status Challenge

A pro-voting lawsuit seeking to force the Maricopa County Recorder to restore voter registration status of 25 U.S. citizens.

Background

The Arizona Attorney General and Secretary of State sued the Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap to force him to restore the status of 25 lawfully registered voters. This comes after a years-long data error in Arizona that incorrectly marked people as having provided documentation of citizenship when it was unclear if they actually did. In March, Heap said he could not determine the citizenship of 207 registered voters, only 60 of whom had cast ballots in an election, but it was later revealed that 52 of those voters were citizens. After these findings, 25 of the voters on the list of 52 were still barred from voting, including some people on the Active Early Voting List and another on the Military and Overseas Voter list who should have received mail ballots. The plaintiffs ask for a writ of mandamus to force Heap to restore the 25 voters’ registration status and force him to send the already ordered mail-in ballots.

Why it Matters

The Trump administration has spread conspiracy theories about illegal noncitizen voting since President Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. Justin Heap has spread those claims in Maricopa County, and worked with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to identify alleged noncitizens registered to vote, using the highly inaccurate SAVE database to try to find noncitizen voters.

Latest Updates

• Oct. 21, 2026: Plaintiffs filed their complaint