(DailyVantage.com) – The Arizona Supreme Court ruled on Friday that nearly 98,000 people whose U.S. citizenship has not been confirmed will still be allowed to vote in the upcoming state and local elections. This decision followed a “coding oversight” in state software, which led Arizona’s Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to declare that ballots would be sent to those affected regardless of the error.
The database issue impacted the citizenship status of about 100,000 Arizona voters. Specifically, it affected individuals who obtained their driver’s licenses before October 1996 and later received duplicates before registering to vote after 2004. Fontes and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican, disagreed on how to handle the voters impacted by the software glitch.
Fontes emphasized that the oversight was discovered during routine voter roll maintenance and was not due to illegal voting attempts. Richer, however, filed a special action requesting the Arizona Supreme Court to clarify the voters’ status, arguing that those affected had not met the state’s proof of citizenship requirements and should therefore only be allowed to vote using a “FED ONLY” ballot.
Arizona’s unique proof of citizenship law mandates that voters must provide documented proof of their citizenship to participate in local and state elections. This issue has arisen amid ongoing debates in Arizona, a swing state that narrowly flipped blue in the 2020 presidential election, where Republicans and conservative watchdog groups have been advocating for stricter voter ID laws that require proof of U.S. citizenship for voting in both state and federal elections.
The ruling underscores the complexities surrounding voter eligibility and the ongoing push for tighter election integrity measures in key battleground states like Arizona.
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