Burchill audited county’s 193,506 registrations to confirm status
Yavapai County Recorder Michelle Burchill [R] submitted the county’s active and inactive registrations with and last four digits of their Social Security numbers to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements this spring and summer. The move was part of a review that identified 30 non-citizens for cancellation out of 193,506 active and inactive voters, which equates about 0.016%. Of those 30, four had cast a ballot and were tabulated in an election before the July 21 primary election, according to Burchill.
“We did all of this information, including inactive voters, which really was more expansive than we probably needed,” Burchill said. “But there’s always the possibility that someone who is inactive is going to give me a new address and reactivate. So we really wanted to say ‘if we’re doing this, we’re doing everyone,’ so that I can say ‘we have a fresh start moving forward.'”
Burchill released Arizona’s first-of-its-kind voter roll audit on Aug. 7, after she received approval at the March 4 Yavapai County Board of Supervisors meeting, with Vice Chairwoman Nikki Check [D-District 3] opposed, to use the federal SAVE database to verify citizenship and immigration status for voter registration and voter list maintenance.
“Our records show three of the voters cast a ballot in Yavapai in previous years and the other one voted in Maricopa … previously,” Burchill wrote.
Expanding ballot access was Burchill’s main pitch to the board and to use SAVE to assist voters affected by a past Motor Vehicle Division data glitch who had not provided proof of citizenship, and federal-only voters, typically those who have relocated from another state.
“There was no original scope,” Burchill said. “I wouldn’t say that I ever had specifically a plan to do the entire voter list, because in my opinion, back then, I thought my entire voter list was pretty good.”
Additionally, there are minor changes in the voter totals over the course of Burchill’s investigation as the number of voters changed through new registrations, deaths and or moves.
A total of 6,781 voters affected by the MVD glitch were submitted to SAVE, 6,605 were confirmed citizens, with 14 deceased, 136 with no records found, one was in need of their full Social Security number, and 10 were non-citizens registered. One “had cast a provisional ballot in a previous election,” the report reads.
The 10 non-citizens were canceled after a 35-day period, and the non-citizenship information was forwarded to the Yavapai County Attorney’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office.
“It will be completely up to them to investigate and decide what charges, if any, are going to be moving forward,” Burchill said about whether any charges will stem from her findings. “I have not received any communication on any updates with that.”
Burchill submitted the county’s 299 active and inactive federal only voters, with 255 of those promoted to full ballot access once their citizenship was verified. Of the remainder, five were deceased, 38 had no records and one voter needed to submit a full Social Security number.
Her office also submitted 335 applicants whose state registration forms had been rejected for lack of citizenship documentation and verified citizenship for 316 of them.
There are an active 276 voters who remain with an unknown citizenship status in the county after using SAVE; of those, 107 are grandfathered in because they registered before Arizona voters approved Proposition 200 in 2004 requiring proof of citizenship to vote, and 169 joined the Yavapai County voter roll after the proposition.
“There is nothing in statute right now that allows us to do anything with this group of people,” Burchill said, adding that the 169 will be getting a letter asking them to supply their citizenship information similar to what happened with the voters affected by the MVD glitch.
SAVE was created in 1987, originally with the intention of helping federal, state and local agencies confirm the immigration status of applicants for public benefits, and the database is not directly related to the SAVE Act working its way through Congress.
Through Executive Orders 14159 and 14248, President Donald Trump expanded the information available to SAVE by pooling data across the federal government to allow states to mass-verify the voters’ citizenship status, which ultimately allowed Burchill use of the system in Yavapai County.
On June 22, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, an appointee of President Joe Biden, ruled in the League of Women Voters v. the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, that the 2025 overhaul of the SAVE database was unlawful because it violates the Social Security Act, the Privacy Act and Administrative Procedure Act.
“States have partnered with the federal government to access the database and are actively removing United States citizens from voter rolls based on inaccurate information,” Sooknanan wrote in her ruling. “All in all, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote. This court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”
Burchill’s results showed the SAVE database’s limitations, she said, and the need for her to vet the results.
Of the original 187,719 Yavapai County voters found — before the shifted numbers came in — 183,562 were confirmed through SAVE to be citizens, 1,155 voters found to be deceased and 2,769 had no records. Additionally, 47 needed to submit their full Social Security numbers, and 39 voters were initially flagged as non-citizens before 28 had their citizenship verified and 11 were confirmed to be non-citizens.
“I’m very happy with using the SAVE program. I’m glad we were the county that was able to use it,” Yavapai County Board of Supervisors Chairman Brooks Compton [R-District 1] said. “It was certainly beneficial and improved our voter rolls, and especially with getting the federal voters back on the rolls.”
Federal-only voters were not removed from the rolls; they were limited to voting in federal races until their citizenship was documented through SAVE.
Burchill’s full report is available online at yavapaivotes.gov/News/SAVE-Voter-Roll-Check.
