Submitted by Muckraker,
Canvassers registering voters for groups backing Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs's re-election told undercover Muckraker journalists posing as a non-citizen and as a felon on probation that they could go ahead and register to vote, hidden-camera footage shows.
With the midterm elections weeks away, Muckraker visited voter registration drives run by three Democrat-aligned organizations: Stand Indivisible Arizona, Worker Power, and the Democratic National Committee's When We Count program. At each, a Muckraker journalist told the canvasser they were not eligible to vote. Muckraker also attended an AFL-CIO phone bank mobilizing voters for Hobbs, where a journalist volunteering to make calls asked whether voters' citizenship mattered.
Muckraker stopped every exercise before any voter registration form was submitted.
BREAKING: Katie Hobbs-Aligned Canvassers Caught Willing to Allow Non-Citizens and a Felon to Vote
— Muckraker (@realmuckraker) October 22, 2026
Muckraker went undercover in Arizona to investigate the groups working to re-elect Gov. Katie Hobbs @katiehobbs and other Democrats.
Here’s what we found:
Stand Indivisible… pic.twitter.com/QbbBmMIyn3
Stand Indivisible Arizona: "Take this and tell them to do it online"
Stand Indivisible Arizona, a nonprofit that has endorsed Hobbs and other Democrats running in 2026, was running a voter registration drive at Paradise Valley Community College. A Muckraker journalist, posing as a Canadian student in the U.S. on an F-1 visa, approached a canvasser.
When the canvasser was told that the journalist was a Canadian on a student visa, she first said, "We can't do it." But when the journalist asked, "Can I just fill it out, submit it with you, and then forget it?" she answered: "Yeah, I guess. The other thing you could do is you could go online, but I'd rather do it with you."
Asked whether the journalist's Canadian friends could register to vote too, she said: "Take this [a business card with a QR code linking to an online voter registration form] and tell them to do it online."
When Muckraker's Anthony Rubin returned to ask about the exchange, she said, "I told you, I can't stop you from putting it online," and declined further comment.
Worker Power: "Okay, if you want to"
Worker Power is a Phoenix-based nonprofit that raised nearly $10 million in the 2024 election cycle and says it runs the largest electoral field program in Arizona. This year it is working to re-elect Hobbs and other Democrats. Muckraker found a canvasser registering voters at the Phoenix Public Library and again posed as a non-citizen.
"Are you a USA citizen?" the canvasser asked.
"Not yet," the journalist said.
"You have to be a USA citizen to vote," she replied. The journalist said they were a resident and asked to "just send it." She asked, "Are you sure you want to try it?" then said, "Okay, if you want to," and marked "yes" for U.S. citizenship on the Arizona voter registration form.
"Yes, and then you need to sign there," she said.
Approached afterward, she declined to say how often non-citizens are registered.
When We Count: "You should just do it"
When We Count is the DNC's own voter registration program, the largest in the party's history. It launched in Arizona in 2026 and pays young fellows to register new Democratic voters. Muckraker found its canvassers at Mesa Community College, where journalist Anthony Rubin posed as a felon on probation.
Under Arizona law, a felony conviction suspends the right to vote (A.R.S. § 13-904). The canvassers looked it up. "You're restored to vote when probation has been completed," one said.
Asked whether they cared if the journalist registered anyway, one said, "You should just do it. Just do it."
When Rubin returned to ask how often the group helps ineligible people register, the canvassers declined to comment and left.
AFL-CIO phone bank: "Not our business"
Muckraker also attended an AFL-CIO phone bank at a union hall in central Phoenix, where volunteers were phone banking to mobilize voters to support Katie Hobbs.
A Muckraker journalist asked the phone bank trainer whether to ask the people being called if they were citizens. "No, we don't get into any of that," the trainer said. "We don't care."
"If he's not a U.S. citizen, why should I proceed?" the journalist asked. "Not our business," the trainer said.
Gov. Hobbs: no comment
Katie Hobbs later spoke in the same building as the AFL-CIO phone bank at an event hosted by AFSCME, one of the unions endorsing her re-election. Anthony Rubin asked her about non-citizens being registered to vote and about the groups working for her re-election. She did not respond
What the law says
No Arizona law requires voter registration drives to verify citizenship; county recorders check eligibility after forms are submitted. But Arizona law makes it a class 6 felony for anyone who "knowingly causes or procures another person to be registered" while "knowing that such other person is not entitled to such registration" (A.R.S. § 16-182).
If you work inside an organization involved in the electoral process and have information that should be reported, contact Muckraker at
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