PHOENIX — A federal prosecutor appointed under President Donald Trump announced plans to investigate voter registration practices by several Arizona nonprofits aligned with the Democratic Party.
Timothy Courchaine, who serves as the U.S. attorney for Arizona, said in an Oct. 30 written statement that his office had opened a case into three nonprofits in response to "recent reporting" that the groups were willing to help ineligible people, including undocumented migrants, register to vote.
Courchaine's announcement appeared to refer to a report published days before by the right-leaning outlet Muckraker.
In the report, undercover operatives posed as ineligible voters, such as non-citizens or felons. Footage shows staff with the nonprofits agreeing to allow them to register.
Courchaine said his office had referred allegations regarding three nonprofits — Stand Indivisible Arizona, Worker Power and When We Count — to the FBI.
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He also sent copies of the letter to the Arizona Secretary of State's Office and the Maricopa County Recorder's Office, and encouraged them to review voter registrations associated with the nonprofits, according to the news release that made the announcement.
"On the eve of an important midterm election, the District of Arizona reminds the public that voting is limited solely to U.S. citizens," he wrote. "Further, knowingly causing another person to be registered to vote while knowing that person is not entitled to do so would violate federal law."
The report, and the U.S. attorney's announcement, arrived days before a midterm election that is expected to bring losses for Republicans. Trump has revamped election conspiracy theories in the months leading up to the election, saying he will accept the result "if they are honest elections."
Courchaine's letter drew pushback from the groups involved.
A spokesperson for Worker Power accused him of "doubling down on the actions of these right-wing operatives, who used coercion, intimidation, and attempted extortion to manufacture the appearance of fraud in Maricopa County and discredit Worker Power’s lawful voter registration work."
"We believe that the U.S. Attorney’s request is based on a deceptively edited video recently released by right-wing political operatives that falsely claims to show voter registration fraud," spokesperson Rachele Smith said in a written statement. "The video, which includes footage of a Worker Power employee, is misleading and does not reflect what happened. It is fake news."
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, sent Courchaine a skeptical reply Nov. 2.
Fontes said he had not initiated a review of voter registration because that responsibility lies primarily with county officials in Arizona, not his office. He asked for more information about what exactly the nonprofits are accused of doing wrong.
"As your letter identifies only a state crime, I am not aware of the basis for the investigation that you have initiated. However, my office intends to cooperate in any investigation to the extent required and permitted by law," he wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Arizona Republic via a public records request.
Media representatives for the Maricopa County Recorder's Office, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the other nonprofits named in Courchaine's news release did not immediately return requests for comment.
People cast their early votes at a Scottsdale voting site on Oct. 27.
Video raises questions
In Arizona, there are two forms a voter may register to vote, the state form or the federal form.
Regardless of which form is used, the voter is required to provide documentary proof of citizenship and documentary proof of residency in order to vote in a full ballot of state, local and federal elections.
Those who do not provide documentary proof of citizenship, or the county recorder is unable to ascertain citizenship of the voter, are considered "federal only" voters who may only vote in federal elections, according to Arizona Clean Elections.
The video was created by Anthony Rubin, a conservative activist and founder of Muckraker.com, a right-leaning website that uses undercover tactics, hidden cameras and sting-style videos that focus on election integrity, immigration and border security issues.
Muckraker.com is connected to the Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C., think tank that promotes conservative policies and organized the Project 2025 presidential transition blueprint that has become the foundation of many of Trump’s second-term policies.
The Muckraker.com video appears to show people staffing voter registration tables in the Phoenix area telling noncitizens it is OK for them to register to vote. The non-citizens in the video are actually undercover Muckraker operatives, including Rubin, posing as a Canadian in the United States on an F-1 student visa, a felon on probation and a legal permanent resident.
In the video, Rubin claims he visited voter registration tables staffed by Democratic-aligned groups backing Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs' re-election campaign, including Stand Indivisible Arizona, Worker Power and When We Count. When We Count is the Democratic National Committee's voter registration program.
"Would I be able to bring down my Canadian friends here, and they could register as well?" the undercover reporter asked a staffer in one of the exchanges.
"Take this and tell them to do it online," the staffer said, handing the reporter a card with a QR code.
The report does not provide any evidence of an ineligible person actually registering to vote.
Announcement marks shift for prosecutor
One of Courchaine's predecessors said the Oct. 30 announcement marks a concerning shift for the office.
In a lengthy social media post, Gary Restaino, a former U.S. attorney, said the investigation appeared "unpredicated."
"We’ve been lucky in Arizona over the last 20 months to have a U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuting mostly the same cases it has always prosecuted, led by an executive team of career public servants. They enjoy a positive relationship with the bench and bar. And so I’ve refrained from criticism: until now," Restaino wrote.
The Department of Justice generally does not publicly announce investigations, according to its website. It makes exceptions in some cases, if the matter has received a lot of publicity, or when the public "needs to be reassured" that investigators are taking action.
Restaino said the timing of the investigation, and the fact that Courchaine's office named the groups publicly without charging them with a crime, were "stark deviations from decades of DOJ norms," especially during the sensitive period leading up to an election.
"There’s no apparent evidence that any non-citizens or felons were actually registered by the advocacy groups, and the disrupters’ methodology and slapstick is not worthy of confidence," he wrote.
"When we fear-monger against the prospect of discrete instances of solitary ineligible voting, we run the risk of dissuading far more people from exercising their legitimate and lawful voices."
Courchaine was appointed to the position in February 2025 by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi. He was reappointed in June of that year by Arizona's federal district court judges, allowing him to serve past the expiration of his temporary 120-day term.
During his second term, Trump has attempted to expand the president's power to hire and fire prosecutors like Courchaine, though recent court rulings have stymied those efforts.
In his letter, Fontes said he learned about Courchaine's action through the Oct. 30 news release, and not in a letter Oct. 26, as the U.S. attorney had claimed. He asked that further information be sent directly.
"We expect to receive this information in writing sent directly to this office at the addresses provided in this letter rather than via press release or a representative of the media," he wrote.
