PHOENIX – With the midterm elections are less than two weeks away, advocates and officials are working overtime to ease concerns from Latino and Hispanic voters to ensure they are educated and confident about their voting rights before they head to the polls.  

According to Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly, common questions her office receives from voters include concerns about verifying citizenship, the possibility of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at polling locations and whether ID is required to vote.   

ID Requirement confusion 

Proyecto Progreso, a community advocacy organization that advocates for immigrant communities, is seeing confusion among voters about whether documentation is required when dropping off a mail-in ballot, said Raquel Terán, executive director of the group.

The answer is no. 

Cázares-Kelly has also heard these concerns and said confusion stems from a newer process called ID Verified Early Ballot Drop Off. This service allows voters to verify their ballot at the poll and bypass the traditional signature verification process. 

Terán explained she tells voters they can still drop off their ballots at the polls without standing in line, “when you come to the polls, you could also get your ballot counted right away, but you need to show an ID,” Terán said. 

Concerns over SAVE use

Cázares-Kelly said use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, also known as SAVE, is another concern among voters. The database is operated by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to provide immigration status information to determine an individual’s eligibility for public benefits. 

SAVE has been used by the Department of Homeland Security to ensure registered voters are American citizens since 2005. The program was enhanced in 2025 to perform bulk searches and use Social Security records.

In September, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of temporarily allowing the Trump administration to use the database to check the citizenship of millions of Americans. 

Using the database in this form creates concern that eligible citizens may be incorrectly flagged. The Office of the Texas Secretary of State ran its entire voter list through the database and flagged 2,724 potential noncitizens on the voter rolls. Upon additional review, 506 people were found to be citizens and 117 were referred to the Office of the Attorney General for investigation of potential noncitizen voting. 

In Pima County, there has to be a reason to check a voter’s status in the SAVE database – generally if they can’t verify citizenship via other documentation. Even then, Cázares-Kelly said they aren’t able to search the database with only a name. A social security number and a birthdate are also required. 

Fear of voting in person 

Cázares-Kelly said she hears frequent concern from voters regarding ICE showing up to voting locations. 

“I sent that question to the county attorney's office, and I talked with her about some of the concerns that we're hearing, and they took it really seriously,” she said. 

While she said it is unlikely that ICE will show up at voting locations, they are prepared. Cázares-Kelly said the county attorney’s office drafted language for restraining orders that could be taken to a waiting judge if necessary. 

“All of the counties, we all participate in monthly security meetings to discuss the elections, and we're on the same calls with DHS and with FBI and other local law enforcement agencies, and nobody has heard of anything like that happening within their agencies, and so we're not expecting that,” Cázares-Kelly said “But we created this contingency anyway, just in case.” 

She said there has also been a lot of media attention and voter concern surrounding the Department of Justice sending observers to the polls, which is a normal part of the election process, she added. 

Because Pima County is a U.S. Census-designated Spanish-language area, officials are required by law to provide Spanish language services. The observers actually serve as a protection for Spanish speakers to ensure the county’s compliance with the Spanish language requirements. 

Scott Jarrett, director of elections at Maricopa County, said they have heard similar concerns from voters regarding federal observers. He echoed that DOJ officials have a long history of going to voting locations to protect the rights of all voters.  

Even though there may be federal observers from the Department of Justice, Jarrett says that shouldn’t be a concern.

“They're here to make sure that we've got language assistance, that we're serving voters with disabilities, that we have bilingual poll workers, so they're actually holding us to account to make sure we're serving those voters.” Jarrett said.

He added that federal law prohibits law enforcement agents from being in voting locations.

Encouraging voters to be heard 

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said it is understandable that Latino communities are worried but cautions. It shouldn’t drive them away from their fundamental right to make their voices heard. 

“The people who are trying to scare them away don't want them voting in the first place,” Fontes said. “And so, I'd say, as an act of rebellion, go out and vote.” 

ICE doesn’t have the resources to hit every voting location in every state in the country, Fontes said. The reason these threats are out there is to discourage people, particularly in Latino communities, from voting. 

Amber Rivera, political and advocacy director for the Arizona Coalition For Change, said it is important for Latinos to vote as one of the largest voting blocks in Arizona. 

“We are one of the communities that are most under attack right now,” Rivera said. “And so the vote is like the first place where we can show that we are not okay with what's happening right now.” 

Proyecto Progreso has collaborated with various organizations, knocked on doors, phone banked and worked with Spanish-speaking audiences and media to convey accurate information about voting. 

Terán said the work they do is to remind everybody “we need to vote as a community.” 

“We're 30% of the population here in Arizona, and our vote matters,” Terán said.

Ultimately advocates and election officials want Latino voters to feel safe having their voices heard.  

“People are trying to scare us from getting our voice heard, from going to vote … elections are safe, they are secure, and voting early is extremely important,” Rivera said. “Vote by mail is safe, that is misinformation, so cast your ballot by mail, vote early and just make sure that you get your ballot counted.”

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.