WATCH: Maria Bartiromo Asks RNC Chairman Michael Whatley About The Gateway Pundit’s Reporting on Potential Arizona Election Rigging and 218,000 Voter Registration Scandal – UPDATE: Who Really

Maria Bartiromo on Tuesday asked RNC Chairman Michael Whatley to respond to The Gateway Pundit’s reporting on Arizona’s election after a wholesale voter registration issue registered hundreds of thousands of voters without documentary proof of citizenship.  

As The Gateway Pundit reported, what was first estimated by the state to be 98,000 voters approved without proof of citizenship on file was weeks later discovered to be more than double that amount. Roughly 218,000 voters across the state were registered without proof of citizenship due to a supposed glitch in the system that officials claim only affected voters who received an Arizona driver’s license before 1996. The Democrat Secretary of State further claims that the affected voters are mostly Republicans.

BREAKING UPDATE: Voter Registration Citizenship Check Failure in Arizona Affected 218,000 Voters NOT The Previously Claimed 98,000

The Gateway Pundit previously reported that a supposed error in the Arizona Motor Vehicle Department’s (MVD) system caused nearly 100,000 voter registrations to be validated without properly verifying the registrants’ citizenship. For 20 years, this issue has existed and allowed individuals who received a driver’s license before 1996 to vote without citizenship verification, according to officials. The officials further claim that the voters on this list are mostly Republicans.

As revealed in a recording of a leaked phone conversation between the Secretary of State, Governor, and Attorney General, their solution to the error was a bogus “friendly lawsuit” filed by so-called Republican hatchetman Stephen Richer in his capacity as Maricopa County Recorder. The officials portrayed to be worried they would come under fire for removing the voters, who they claim are mostly Republicans, from the rolls or downgrading their ballot to federal races only. Arizona law allows voters who do not provide documentary proof of citizenship to vote only in federal elections, in accordance with federal law. So, they schemed to employ Stephen Richer, a RINO, to file the lawsuit, asking that the court designate the mostly Republican registrants as “federal only” voters and strip their ability to vote a full ballot with state and local races and ballot measures.

Arizona GOP Chairwoman Gina Swoboda told The Gateway Pundit, "It's my understanding that the Secretary knew and informed the Governor on like September 6." Swoboda learned this from a member of the media, she said, further indicating that the call was staged and leaked to Regime Media Washington Post to set a narrative. If so, this appears to be an attempt to further sow distrust in and disenfranchise Republican voters or a failed attempt to make it appear they did their best to ensure integrity in the process.

Still, despite knowing about the issue for more than a week, they did not notify the public until Stephen Richer announced his staged lawsuit on September 17, less than two months before the election. "I don't know how long they've known what they've known," Swoboda said. "They're going on the record with other members of the media and not telling the stakeholders that represent the members of the public and the voters what's going on." This is further confirmed by the recorded phone conversation on September 10, one week before they made the issue public.

The Secretary of State's office later announced this week that the number of affected voters is actually more than twice the initial estimate. It also appears that they knew about the much larger number of voters supposedly impacted by the error earlier than they announced. As The Gateway Pundit reported, the Arizona GOP sounded the alarm on Secretary of State Adrian Fontes "hiding" something from the public days before announcing they discovered 218,000 impacted voters. Additionally, the Washington Post reports that during the September 10 phone call, "they believed it affected about 148,000 voters, but later lowered the estimate to about 98,000."

Despite claims that these voters are legal citizens and a majority of them are Republicans, it's still unclear what party the affected voters are registered to or if they're even citizens because the Secretary of State's Office has not delivered the list of affected voters to County election officials or the Arizona GOP. In a statement responding to the discovery of 120,000 additional registrations on Monday, the Arizona GOP demanded that the Secretary of State "IMMEDIATELY deliver the list of impacted voters to all 15 county recorders."

Arizona GOP Chairwoman Swoboda previously told The Gateway Pundit that she heard from County Recorders that the Secretary of State is not providing them with the list. The Gateway Pundit has also learned from Mohave County officials that they have not received the list.

When asked what evidence has been provided that the registered voters are legal voters and mostly Republicans, as the Secretary of State, Governor, and Attorney General claim, Swoboda declined to comment but told The Gateway Pundit on Wednesday "We are exploring all legal options" and indicated that they are taking legal action.

Swoboda said she is holding a press conference tomorrow with more information.

Previously, RNC Chair Michael Whatley joined Maria Bartiromo to discuss what the RNC is doing to clean voter registration rolls and agreed that driver's licenses, namely in Arizona, are not adequate proof of citizenship:

In his latest appearance with Bartiromo on her Fox Business show, Whatley assures that "there is going to be a fair election," despite the recent voter registration scandal. He continues, "We're going to have observers and lawyers who are going to be in the room whenever a vote is counted, whenever a vote is cast, to make sure that we're going to be on top of this." However, it's unclear how this will stop illegals from voting.

WATCH:

Bartiromo: What's going on there in Arizona? Early voting begins on October 9, the ballots in Maricopa County. We want to get your take on whether or not you've got confidence there in Arizona, because apparently The Gateway Pundit reported that the GOP Chairwoman provided an update to allegations that there's not going to be a fair election there.

Whatley: Well, there is going to be a fair election, and we're working very, very hard with the Arizona GOP. I actually had dinner with the chairwoman last night, and we're focusing very hard on making sure that we have the right rules of the road in place before the voting starts. We filed numerous lawsuits, and we've been engaged in a lot of discussions with Maricopa and with the state of Arizona. We're going to have observers and lawyers who are going to be in the room whenever a vote is counted, whenever a vote is cast, to make sure that we're going to be on top of this. We want it to be easy to vote and hard to cheat.

The post WATCH: Maria Bartiromo Asks RNC Chairman Michael Whatley About The Gateway Pundit’s Reporting on Potential Arizona Election Rigging and 218,000 Voter Registration Scandal – UPDATE: Who Really Are These 218,000 Voters? appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.