By admin 
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office confirms the U.S. Department of Justice is threatening criminal prosecution of election staff if votes cast by non-citizens are counted this year.
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Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is one of at least nine top election officials nationwide who received the letter. The DOJ is giving Arizona and nine other states five days to explain how they plan to comply, according to reporting from The New York Times.
No prosecutions on record in Arizona
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office would be the prosecuting agency in such cases. According to its records, there are no examples of non-citizens being prosecuted or convicted for illegal voting. Those records span 15 years and cover both Democratic and Republican administrations.
Letters come amid push for stricter election rules
The letters come as President Trump continues to press for stricter election rules. In the past, Trump has made accusations that Democrats benefited from non-citizens voting — claiming, for example, that 3 million non-citizens illegally voted in California during the 2016 election. No credible evidence has been presented to support those claims.
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The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office had not yet said how it plans to respond. Fontes has previously pushed back against the Trump administration on election-related matters.
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