Elizabeth MacDonald on Fox Business with a chyron alleging noncitizen voters in Arizona

Fox Business, 4/14/25

Fox News quietly corrects “wrong” story claiming that 50,000 noncitizens were on Arizona’s voting rolls

Written by Isabella Corrao

Published

On April 13, Fox News reportedly posted a misleading article titled “Arizona to begin removing as many as 50K noncitizens from voter rolls following lawsuit.” The article claimed that Arizona’s 15 counties had begun “the process of verifying and removing noncitizens from their voter rolls, including nearly 50,000 registrants who did not provide proof of U.S. citizenship” as a result of a settlement between Maricopa County and the conservative group America First Legal over the latter’s claim that election officials were not employing all available databases to confirm voter citizenship, as required by the state.

Fox’s original reporting was incorrect, as county officials clarified to VoteBeat Arizona:

“The story is wrong,” said Sam Stone, spokesperson for the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, which led settlement negotiations on behalf of all 15 counties.

What county officials are doing as a result of the settlement, Stone said, is asking the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to provide an additional way for county officials to check voter citizenship.

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In Arizona, around 49,000 active or inactive voters are eligible to vote only in federal elections because they did not prove their citizenship. Another 200,000 longtime residents will need to verify their citizenship status in the coming months because they were affected by a state error in tracking citizenship that was disclosed last summer.

Stone said most of these voters are likely U.S. citizens who simply haven’t submitted the necessary documents.

Fox has seemingly updated the article to “Arizona to verify up to 50K people from voter rolls who failed to prove citizenship” and removed the suggestion that Arizona had 50,000 noncitizens on its voting rolls. An editor’s note appears at the bottom of the page saying, “This story has been updated to reflect that the AZ voters on the rolls under examination did not prove their citizenship at the time of registration.”

  • On its TV networks, Fox hosts bolstered the misleading claim

    • Fox host Carley Shimkus said “Arizona is beginning to remove as many as 50,000 noncitizens from their voting roll, following a successful lawsuit by the America First legal team.” Shimkus interviewed extremist Sheriff Mark Lamb, asking if he thinks “noncitizens were voting in elections.” Lamb said that he does think noncitizens were voting in elections and suggested that they could have impacted the 2020 presidential and 2022 midterm elections. [Fox News, Fox & Friends First, 4/14/25; Media Matters, 5/8/23]
    • Fox & Friends host Ainsley Earhardt reported that Arizona is “removing as many as 50,000 noncitizens from their voter rolls.” She alleged that this could have affected previous presidential elections: “Look at the election between Biden and Trump. When you have 50,000 people that are here illegally and they’re voting, that makes a difference.” Host Lawrence Jones responded: “I’m with you, Ainsley.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 4/14/25]
    • Fox Business host Elizabeth MacDonald: “All 15 Arizona counties have now begun the process of verifying and removing noncitizens, illegal aliens, from their voter rolls, including nearly 50,000 who did not provide proof of U.S. citizenship.” MacDonald then connected this misleading story to voter ID laws: “Why are Democrats against voter ID laws? Shouldn't we be cleaning up the rolls?” OutKick host Tomi Lahren added, “This should be happening in every county. This should be happening in every state.” [Fox Business, The Evening Edit, 4/14/25]