FACT CHECK: Does Arizona Have 9 Million Registered Voters?
An image shared on Instagram claims Arizona has 9 million registered voters despite a population of 7.2 million.
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Verdict: False
Arizona has 4 million registered voters, not 9 million. The claim has been circulating since 2020.
Fact Check:
Arizona certified the election results of the 2022 midterms Dec. 6, according to The Associated Press. Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who lost to Governor-elect Katie Hobbs, is expected to file a lawsuit challenging the results despite little evidence of election fraud or election mismanagement, the outlet reported.
The Instagram post claims Arizona had more registered voters than the state’s population. The post’s caption reads, “9,871,525 is the number of registered voters in AZ according to FB. AZ population is 7,270,000.”
This claim, though, is false. The number of registered voters in Arizona was 4,143,929 for the November 2022 general election, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s office. Arizona’s Secretary of State’s office reported that the state had 3.5 million registered voters in 2016, 3.7 million in 2018 and 4.2 million in 2020.
The claim has been circulating since October 2020. The 9 million number is a reference to the total number of people who shared on Facebook that they registered to vote, not the total number of registered voters in Arizona, according to Politifact.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed to Check Your Fact that it shows the nationwide amount of people who registered to vote in 2020. (RELATED: Is Arizona’s Voting Equipment Not Certified?)
Misinformation around the Arizona elections has been circulating since early November. Check Your Fact recently fact-checked an image that made misleading claims about Election Day voting in Maricopa County.
