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Of the 3.6 million ballots cast, only 28 were flagged as potential illegal voting by an organization that cross checks Arizona voter data with other states. That works out to 0.0000083% of total ballots.

In 25 of the cases, individuals were found to have first voted in Arizona's November 2024 election but later also cast a 2024 ballot in another state. Because it's the second vote that makes the practice illegal, no one is being charged in Arizona.

Another three cases are still under investigation by the state Attorney General's Office, including one instance where an individual appears to have voted the ballot of a dead person.

The numbers show it's rare that people vote illegally, a finding that is consistent with past cross checks that compared Arizona voting practices with those of other states.

The results should quiet "the conspiracy theorists and liars'' who stoke fears about election fraud, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said.

"The message will get through if people are paying attention,'' Fontes told Capitol Media Services. "It shows we have a system that works because these folks were caught.''

Shane Hamlin, executive director of the Electronic Registration Information Center, echoed that view.

"A far smaller number of people want to commit voter fraud than what people suspect,'' he said. The center crosschecked Arizona's 2024 voter information with that of 18 other states — mostly states controlled by Democrats — that belong to the nonprofit organization.

Although the match involved fewer than half the states, Hamlin said the results are a "good sample'' and reflect the fact that member states have strong election programs.

"All states have made massive improvements in administration of elections in recent years,'' he said, adding he hopes the organization's work reassures the public that the system works.

ERIC came under fire from election skeptics in the wake of the 2020 election, causing its membership to drop, including the populous Republican states of Florida and Texas. But the numbers are ticking back up, with 26 states participating and New York and Virginia expected to join, Hamlin said.

States that join ERIC share voter registration data as well as identification data from their motor vehicle divisions. They mask details such as the last four numbers of a person's Social Security number but provide enough data to pinpoint a voter.

The center's staff uses that information to create reports on voters who have moved from one state to another; voters who moved within their state; voters with duplicate registrations in the same state; and voters who died as reported to the Social Security Administration. These reports are cross checked with participating states to identify voting issues.

ERIC's initial comparison identified 316 cases of possible illegal voting in Arizona. Those cases were then reviewed by the Arizona Secretary of State and the 15 county recorders, resulting in the 28 referrals to the attorney general for review.

All but two of the investigations involved Maricopa County voters; the others were from Apache and Mohave counties, according to data provided by the Attorney General's office. Of the 28 referrals, 15 were Republican voters, eight were independents, four were Democrats and one voter's party affiliation was not discerned, records showed.

One voter, who was flagged as having voted in both Arizona and Washington in 2024, said she was flummoxed when she got a letter from the Attorney General's office advising she appeared to have voted twice in the 2024 election.

The letter directed her to cancel her voter registration in Washington if Arizona is indeed her primary residence, and warned that any potential future violations could result in possible prosecution.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution but emphasized that she was 76 years old, said she hasn't lived in Washington in more than a decade. She has called the Attorney General's office to better understand the situation, and said she may contact authorities in her former state to find out why her name would still be on that state's voter rolls — and how a ballot got cast under her name.

There are varied reasons for double voting, from the accidental to the intentional.

"Historically, when double voting has occurred it is usually an innocent mistake,'' said Richie Taylor, communications director for Attorney General Kris Mayes.

One example is a snowbird who mistakenly voted in two states, believing that was legitimate because they pay property taxes in both states. However, the law is clear: A person can only vote once in an election.

A Green Valley couple admitted to double voting in the 2008 election. They voted by mail in their previous home state of Kansas, but later cast ballots in Arizona in the same election. James and Karen Marshall pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and were sentenced to a year of probation.

A Bullhead City woman was found guilty of voting in Colorado's 2010 general election by mailing her ballot from her Arizona address. She then cast a ballot in Arizona's general election. She lost her voting privileges and was sentenced to three years of supervised probation and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine.

Taylor said the 25 individuals investigated for double voting in 2024 were given a warning. The ballots they cast in Arizona were counted; any violation would have happened in the second state where they are suspected of having voted.

Other cases of illegal voting involve voting a dead person's ballot.

In 2020, Krista Michelle Conner of Sierra Vista was sentenced to three years' probation for voting her dead mother's ballot in the 2020 election. She also was required to pay $890 in fine and do 100 hours of community service.

The cases are interesting, but uncommon. The Heritage Foundation tracks election fraud cases nationwide. It lists 17 cases of double voting that were prosecuted in ÃÛÌÒÓ°ÏñAV over the 43-year period their database covers; there were three instances of voting a dead person's ballot.

One area not covered by the crosscheck process is non-citizen voting, a key concern of Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap. He recently referred 207 cases of voting by people suspected of not being U.S. citizens to the county attorney for investigation.

Heap relied on a federal database called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE system, to identify these potential illegal voters. That database was updated during the current Trump administration but even before that, was viewed skeptically by many election officials because it has been found to rely on outdated immigration information.

Hamlin said ERIC does not use the system, citing its shortcomings.

Heap's office did not respond to a request for comment on the 28 suspected cases of illegal voting. All but two of the cases involve Maricopa County voters.