499 Arizonans Claim Stores as Legal Residences: 110 Voted in 2020, Study Finds

499 Arizonans Claim Stores as Legal Residences: 110 Voted in 2020, Study Finds
Ballots are counted by Maricopa County Elections Department staff in Phoenix on Oct. 31, 2020. (Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images)
Steven Kovac
2/2/2022
Updated:
2/2/2022
A study released on Jan. 31 by the nonpartisan Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) has revealed many irregularities on Arizona’s voter rolls.

Records examined in Maricopa County found that 354 registered voters had claimed storefront addresses as their legal residence. Yuma County was next with 133, followed by a smattering of instances in four other counties, for a total of 499. Of that figure, 110 of them voted in the 2020 General Election.

Though seemingly small, such statistics can be significant. On Election Day (Nov. 3, 2020), 30 state legislative elections across the United States were decided by 100 votes or fewer. In one race in New Hampshire, the margin of victory was four votes.

The PILF report states that 15 million mail ballots were unaccounted for nationwide. Maricopa County led the country with 110,000 undeliverable ballots. The study cited statistics from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which showed that Maricopa County ranked 29th in the nation with 229,000 ballots marked “status unknown.”

PILF’s study also discovered that 31,641 people who moved out of Arizona were able to register to vote in their new home state without being removed from Arizona’s voter rolls. It’s unclear how this could happen, since Arizona, like other states, has access to the National Change of Address link and is part of the Electronic Registration Information Center, an interstate cooperative that tracks voters across the country.

The study also revealed that 863 Arizonans were found to be registered to vote twice under variations of their names.

“Recent history has shown how seemingly silly errors in the voter roll can fuel election misinformation and heighten public stress amid a close outcome,"  PILF President J. Christian Adams said. “Arizona election officials still have some time on their side to prepare voter rolls for the midterm.”

The organization’s mission statement reads in part that “the foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections.”

Erika Flores, a spokeswoman for the Maricopa County Elections Department, told The Epoch Times: “Elections staff spent thousands of hours in 2021 responding to rumors, lies, and innuendo related to the 2020 election. We have publicly available information ... showing the integrity of our workers and the effective checks and balances that ensure free, fair, and accurate elections. We stand by those facts.”

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, couldn’t be reached for comment.