Arizona
DOJ sends election monitors to 5 Arizona counties to ensure voting law compliance
PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) – Federal election screens shall be deployed to varied ballot areas in 5 Arizona counties beginning Tuesday to observe compliance with Federal Voting Rights Legal guidelines, the Division of Justice introduced on Monday.
Officers say that personnel from the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorneys’ Places of work shall be deployed to Maricopa, Navajo, Pima, Pinal, and Yavapai counties beginning on Election Day Tuesday to look at for any voter intimidation and voter suppression. In all, the division says it’s going to deploy personnel to 64 communities in 24 states.
Division officers are encouraging voters to report disruption at a polling place instantly to native election officers (together with these within the polling place). These complaints associated to violence, threats of violence, or intimidation at a polling place needs to be reported instantly by calling 911. As soon as native authorities have been made conscious, voters are requested to report the incident to DOJ officers.
Arizona has been within the nationwide highlight in recent times after the 2020 presidential election, adopted by a controversial poll audit ordered by Republicans within the Arizona State Senate. So far, elections officers round Arizona have repeatedly mentioned there had been no indicators of voter fraud in current elections.
DOJ Civil Rights Division monitor areas:
- Metropolis of Bethel, Alaska;
- Dillingham Census Space, Alaska;
- Kusilvak Census Space, Alaska;
- Sitka Metropolis-Borough, Alaska;
- Maricopa County, Arizona;
- Navajo County, Arizona;
- Pima County, Arizona;
- Pinal County, Arizona;
- Yavapai County, Arizona;
- Newton County, Arkansas;
- Los Angeles County, California;
- Sonoma County, California;
- Broward County, Florida;
- Miami-Dade County, Florida;
- Palm Seashore County, Florida;
- Cobb County, Georgia;
- Fulton County, Georgia;
- Gwinnett County, Georgia;
- City of Clinton, Massachusetts;
- Metropolis of Everett, Massachusetts;
- Metropolis of Fitchburg, Massachusetts;
- Metropolis of Leominster, Massachusetts;
- Metropolis of Malden, Massachusetts;
- Metropolis of Methuen, Massachusetts;
- Metropolis of Randolph, Massachusetts;
- Metropolis of Salem, Massachusetts;
- Prince George’s County, Maryland;
- Metropolis of Detroit, Michigan;
- Metropolis of Flint, Michigan;
- Metropolis of Grand Rapids, Michigan;
- Metropolis of Pontiac, Michigan;
- Metropolis of Southfield, Michigan;
- Metropolis of Minneapolis, Minnesota;
- Hennepin County, Minnesota;
- Ramsey County, Minnesota;
- Cole County, Missouri;
- Alamance County, North Carolina;
- Columbus County, North Carolina;
- Harnett County, North Carolina;
- Mecklenburg County, North Carolina;
- Wayne County, North Carolina;
- Middlesex County, New Jersey;
- Bernalillo County, New Mexico;
- San Juan County, New Mexico;
- Clark County, Nevada;
- Washoe County, Nevada;
- Queens County, New York;
- Cuyahoga County, Ohio;
- Berks County, Pennsylvania;
- Centre County, Pennsylvania;
- Lehigh County, Pennsylvania;
- Luzerne County, Pennsylvania;
- Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania;
- Metropolis of Pawtucket, Rhode Island;
- Horry County, South Carolina;
- Dallas County, Texas;
- Harris County, Texas;
- Waller County, Texas;
- San Juan County, Utah;
- Metropolis of Manassas, Virginia;
- Metropolis of Manassas Park, Virginia;
- Prince William County, Virginia;
- Metropolis of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and,
- Metropolis of Racine, Wisconsin.
Copyright 2022 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.
Arizona
Audit on Arizona's voter data coding problem released
A review of how some noncitizens were allowed to register to vote in Arizona confirms an ABC15 Investigators report that uncovered incompatibilities between state laws for obtaining driver licenses and registering to vote.
Arizona is the only state in the nation to require proof of citizenship to register to vote. About 218,000 voters may not have provided proof due to systemic database issues stretching back 20 years. The problems became public in September, shortly before the 2024 election.
Gov. Katie Hobbs on Friday released a bipartisan audit she ordered in the fall after the issues came to light. It recommends closer coordination between the Motor Vehicle Division, which issues driver licenses, and the Secretary of State’s Office, which maintains voter rolls, as well as county recorders.
“Finding regular time to share information and build relationships between the MVD and election officials will help eliminate issues in the future,” the report states.
ABC15 is committed to finding the answers you need and holding those accountable.
Submit your news tip to Investigators@abc15.com
The MVD and voter roll systems have been reprogrammed, but the audit also notes that state law could still allow some U.S. nationals who are not citizens to register to vote. Arizona law accepts passports as proof of citizenship, but passports are issued to some people who are not citizens, such as U.S. nationals from American Samoa and Swains Island.
The MVD does not know how many people this could affect but believes the number is very small, according to the audit.
Audit cites ABC15 reporting from 2016 on noncitizen who registered to vote
The audit details how the problems affecting Arizona’s voter rolls persisted for decades and confirms ABC15 reporting that the database issues could have been identified and fixed years ago.
In September, then-Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes announced they had found a data coding error in Arizona’s driver’s license database that allowed at least one non-citizen to register to vote.
Initial estimates found the data errors affected about 218,000 people, 5% of all Arizona voters, who may not have provided documentary proof of citizenship to register as required by Proposition 200, which became law in 2004. These voters were initially issued a driver’s license prior to 1996, before state law required proof of citizenship for licenses.
In October 2016, ABC15 reported on how a non-citizen was able to register to vote in Maricopa County. At the time, Alan Faygenblat described his actions as an attempt to see “if the system really worked” in preventing voter fraud.
“I didn’t want to get in trouble,” he told ABC15 then.
Faygenblat was criminally charged with false voter registration and pleaded guilty in 2017.
According to court records, Faygenblat was an Israeli citizen who was legally in the United States, but he falsely checked a box saying he was a citizen on the Service Arizona website. He received a voter registration card in the mail.
The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office in 2016 described his registration as a loophole.
“Any person who got a driver’s license after 1996 had to prove citizenship to the MVD. (The individual) had gotten a driver’s license in 1994 so he did not need to prove citizenship. However, for some reason after 1996, he had to get a new license reissued to him and he was never scanned for citizenship at that point,” a recorder’s spokesperson had told ABC15.
Then-Recorder Helen Purcell dismissed the idea this could lead to widespread fraud.
“I think we check it thoroughly enough that’s not the case,” she told ABC15.
Neither the secretary of state nor other election officials asked for changes after the ABC15 story, the audit says.
The same loophole was again discovered in 2024 – eight years later – with a new noncitizen who registered to vote in Maricopa County.
According to an internal report from December, Secretary of State’s Office staffers also discovered the miscoding in two separate instances in 2017 and 2020.
Hobbs, who was secretary of state in 2020, sent current Secretary of State Adrian Fontes a letter critical of that report’s findings, saying the review appeared to be focused on finding someone to blame.
The governor in her letter indicated that the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, which Fontes headed in 2020, had been made aware of the incident.
The voters affected by the miscoding were allowed to cast a full ballot in November. But county recorders still need to contact those voters for proper documentation of citizenship before the next election.
State and county elections officials also need to decide what to do about a list of approximately 7,000 voters who have an inactive MVD record, according to the governor-ordered audit.
Arizona
Warmer weekend ahead for Arizona after cool temps this week
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A gorgeous day is ahead for much of Arizona, but changes are on tap for the weekend ahead.
Look for sunny skies and slightly warmer temperatures today in the Valley of the Sun. Morning temperatures in the upper 30s to mid 40s will climb to the upper 60s this afternoon, which is near normal for this time of year in Phoenix.
A ridge of high pressure building over our region will bring significantly warmer temperatures for the next week. Over the weekend, look for Valley highs in the mid 70s on Saturday and near 80 degrees on Sunday. Mostly sunny skies and light winds are expected both days.
Even warmer weather is expected early next week when afternoon temperatures climb to the mid 80s Monday and Tuesday. All across the state, afternoon highs will be 10 to 15 degrees above normal and near records.
An area of low pressure is forecast to move by to the north of Arizona by the middle of next week, which will weaken the ridge and bring a slight cool down. The Valley will drop to the upper 70s Wednesday and likely to the mid 70s for Thursday and Friday.
This storm could bring a few light showers to the high country, but only light accumulation is expected. At this point the Valley looks to stay dry. Next weekend also looks pleasant and dry.
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Copyright 2025 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.
Arizona
Former Arizona Coyotes franchise has fans vote on team name
The former Arizona Coyotes franchise, now the Utah Hockey Club, has chosen three names for fans to vote on for their permanent team name.
Not making the list is the fan favorite “Yeti” or “Yetis” name. The Utah Hockey Club filed for a trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, according to The Associated Press, that was rejected on Jan. 9. The “Yeti” name in relation to the hockey team would have confused the majority of people with the Yeti brand. Thus, Yeti and the Utah Hockey Club could not reach an agreement of coexistence with branding and merchandising.
The final three names up for consideration were Utah Mammoth, Utah Hockey Club and Utah Wasatch.
After Wednesday night’s first day of voting, Utah decided that the Wasatch name was not as popular to the crowd as they thought.
On Thursday, the team announced that they would be switching the option of Utah Wasatch to Utah Outlaws after the first round of voting.
Hey Utah hockey fans! We listened to your feedback and dug into all the Qualtrics data from last night’s survey. For the team name, it’s clear that Outlaws should be in the mix instead of Wasatch, so we’re swapping it out.
Surveys will continue at the arena Friday, Sunday and…
— Utah Hockey Club (@utahhockeyclub) January 30, 2025
For the next three home games (voting started on Wednesday night against Pittsburgh) fans at the Delta Center can vote on their favorite name on an iPad. The next three home games are on Jan. 31 versus Columbus, Feb. 2 versus St. Louis and Feb. 4 versus Philadelphia.
The initial thought to use the Wasatch name was to still get across the idea behind the fans’ wishes of the Yeti, a mythical creature that lives up in the Himalayan mountains. The Wasatch Mountains run along the east side of the Salt Lake Valley.
“We wanted to honor this idea people had for a mythical snow creature like the Yeti and bring a very Utah-centric approach to it,” Smith Entertainment Group executive Mike Maughan said in an article by AP’s John Coon. “Because we have the Wasatch Mountains, because we have the Wasatch Front, we have so many different iterations or ways we can do it. We wanted to honor the sentiment of one of those top names of the last iteration (of fan voting) while also including a Utah-centric version of it.”
A unique feature is that when fans click to vote on their favorite name, it will reveal logos, jerseys and branding for that particular choice.
The permanent team name will be revealed ahead of the Utah Hockey Club’s 2025-26 home opener.
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