Mistaken voter letters issued by Maricopa County Recorder’s office

The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office mailed about 83,000 voters an incorrect letter warning them they would be moved to the inactive voter list if they didn’t respond, a mistake the Recorder’s Office blamed on a printing error.

The voters, roughly 3% of the total registered voters in Maricopa County, were supposed to receive a different letter entirely, according to Sam Stone, chief of staff in the Recorder’s Office.

Mary Jo Pitzl, Senior Reporter at “The Arizona Republic,” joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss the letter.

Pitzl shared some insight into the letter that was supposed to sent out to those 83,000 voters.

“The letter that was intended to be sent was meant to address this ‘glitch’ that was discovered last September that found that there are about 83,000 voters in Maricopa County whose registrations don’t show proof of citizenship. And because in many cases it wasn’t required when they first signed up to vote or got a driver’s license which can serve as a registration proxy,” Pitzl said.

The letter’s recipients were incorrectly told the Recorder’s Office had received notification from the Arizona Department of Transportation they had obtained a driver’s license in a different state. The voters were also told they would be moved to the inactive voter list if they didn’t respond within 90 days.

These voters will not be moved to the inactive voter list, Stone confirmed. It also drew sharp intra-party rebukes from two fellow Republicans on the County Board of Supervisors, who said their phones were swamped with angry calls.

Pitzl also noted that they have received public records that show that the County Recorder’s office did approve the printing of the mistaken voter letters.

“Public records that we obtained show that correspondence between Heap’s office and the printer show that there’s you know a little bit of blame to go around. But most importantly the letter, the one that you showed, that went out to voters was approved by somebody in Heap’s office, the names were redacted from the email. So they gave the go ahead and the printer is there to do what they say and they sent these things out,” Pitzl said.