Nearly 98,000 Arizonans Whose Citizenship Hadn’t Been Confirmed Can Vote Full Ballot, Court Rules; Arizona Supreme Court Clears Nearly 98,000 Voters to Participate In All Elections

Nearly 98,000 Arizonans whose citizenship hadn’t been confirmed can vote full ballot, court rules:

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday that nearly 98,000 people whose citizenship documents hadn’t been confirmed can vote in state and local races.

The court’s decision comes after officials uncovered a database error that for two decades mistakenly designated the voters as having access to the full ballot.

Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, and Stephen Richer, the Republican Maricopa County recorder, had disagreed on what status the voters should hold. Richer asked the high court to weigh in, saying Fontes ignored state law by advising county officials to let affected voters cast full ballots.

Fontes said not allowing the voters who believed they had satisfied voting requirements access to the full ballot would raise equal protection and due process concerns.

The high court agreed with Fontes. It said county officials lack the authority to change the voters’ statuses because those voters registered long ago and had attested under the penalty of law that they are citizens. The justices also said the voters were not at fault for the database error and also mentioned the little time that’s left before the Nov. 5 general election.

“We are unwilling on these facts to disenfranchise voters en masse from participating in state contests,” Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer stated in the ruling.

Arizona is unique among states in that it requires voters to prove their citizenship to participate in local and state races. Voters can demonstrate citizenship by providing a driver’s license or tribal ID number, or they can attach a copy of a birth certificate, passport or naturalization documents. READ MORE HERE

Arizona Supreme Court clears nearly 98,000 voters to participate in all elections:

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Friday that nearly 98,000 people with unverified citizenship documents can now vote in state and local elections, which could significantly impact key state ballot measures and tight legislative races.

Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer, writing for the court, said, “We are unwilling on these facts to disenfranchise voters en masse from participating in state contests. Doing so is not authorized by state law and would violate principles of due process.”

The ruling follows a glitch in Arizona’s driver’s license database that left thousands of voters wrongly registered due to an outdated system. Because no law allows county recorders to change their registration status, these voters won’t face restrictions in the upcoming November election. The issue stemmed from how the Motor Vehicle Division shares information with the state’s voter registration system, affecting those who got their Arizona driver’s license before October 1996, received a replacement and then registered to vote after 2004.

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer raised concerns earlier this week about the driver’s license database and asked the Arizona Supreme Court to restrict nearly 98,000 voters who have been voting for decades and aren’t suspected of being noncitizens to federal races only unless they provide proof of citizenship soon. Richer claimed that letting these individuals vote in state and local elections without showing proof of citizenship would break state law. He asked the court to decide if Secretary of State Adrian Fontes has overstepped his authority and whether election officials need to verify these voters’ proof of citizenship before giving them full ballots for the November election despite the Purcell Doctrine, which prohibits courts from changing voting or election rules too close to an election to avoid confusion for voters and election officials. —>READ MORE HERE

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