Several thousand Pima County voters are getting a letter they never asked for telling them that they aren’t registered to vote.
The Washington D.C.-based Voter Participation Center sent out the bulk mailing that county election officials say is inaccurate because many of the recipients are, in fact, probably registered.
“The Recorder’s Office has been informed that the VPC group receives their initial list from commercial mail vendors, but the information does not accurately reflect the voter registration records in Pima County,” said Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez.
“We encourage citizen participation in all elections but we always caution voters from responding to requests for information from or providing information to groups or individuals that you do not know.”
This isn’t the first time Rodriguez has warned the public about mailings from the Voter Participation Center.
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She warned voters about a similar mailer in the fall of 2014, but said her office has no legal authority to regulate these mailings to the public.
No one from the Voter Participation Center could be immediately reached for comment.
The president of the nonprofit, nonpartisan group, Page Gardner, told the Star in 2014 that her group is solely focused on trying to registering voters. Since 2004, she said then, her group has registered 2 million voters.
This is not the first time the group has run afoul of Arizona election officials, either.
In 2007, then-Secretary of State Jan Brewer chastised Gardner for “misleading and deceptive” mailings sent by the group when it was called Women’s Voices Women Vote.
Brewer also pointed out a rather large mistake on the return envelope seven years ago.
“In addition, our State Capitol Phoenix is embarrassingly misspelled ‘Pheonix’ on the return address envelope,” wrote Brewer.
Contact reporter Joe Ferguson at jferguson@tucson.com or 573-4197. On Twitter: @JoeFerguson
Joe Ferguson
Reporter
