Arizona court says 98K voters impacted by coding error can vote full ballot in fall

The Arizona Supreme Court said Friday that nearly 100,000 voters stuck in limbo following a citizenship tracking error will be allowed to vote a full ballot in November.

The decision temporarily resolves a quandary that could have disenfranchised the group and swayed down-ballot races across the state.

The order comes days after election officials engaged in an emergency lawsuit to determine how to handle voters whose eligibility was unexpectedly put into question by a coding glitch in the state's motor vehicle database that went undetected for years. Officials found earlier this month that some registered, full-ballot voters may not have provided citizenship documents and were miscategorized on the voter rolls.

Arizona uniquely requires its voters to submit documentary proof of citizenship to participate in state and local races. But the court said the issue was discovered too close to the November election to make changes to voters' eligibility under existing legal precedent.

Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer also noted that the affected voters had previously been registered to vote a full ballot and that election officials did not suggest that they had any reason to believe the impacted voters were not citizens.

"We are unwilling on these facts to disenfranchise voters en masse from participating in state contests," Timmer wrote. "Doing so is not authorized by state law and would violate principles of due process."

The decision buys election officials time to determine next steps for impacted voters — but they must still work to come up with solutions. Affected voters will need to prove their citizenship to vote a full ballot in future elections.

Officials said Thursday that they were hoping to use federal tools to whittle down the list of voters caught in the coding error by performing additional citizenship checks.

Democratic Rep. Greg Stanton asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in a Thursday letter to assist election officials in confirming voters' citizenship status. A spokesperson for his office said the matter had been referred to officials with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to "see what is possible."

He also asked the State Department to look into "the viability of using passport information to verify citizenship."

\'Thank God\': Election officials express relief at ruling

Both parties to the lawsuit — Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes — expressed relief at the court's decision late Friday.

"We won," Fontes said in a social media post. "No voters on 'the list' will be made Fed-Only. Congrats team. Thank you amici. Now… let’s go have an election!!"

Richer thanked the court for its review of the matter, calling it "extremely quick and professional."

"The 100k registrants will continue to vote a full ballot this election," he said in a social media post. "Thank God."

What caused the problem?

State officials say the problem came to light when one voter caught in the coding error attempted to update their registration earlier this month.

Fontes said staff in the Maricopa County Recorder's Office discovered the voter was a lawful permanent resident — not a U.S. citizen. The person had never cast a ballot, but the issue set off alarms in several government offices.

During an investigation, election officials found that the error was caused by the way the state's Motor Vehicle Division provided information to its voter registration database.

Arizonans have been required to provide citizenship documents to obtain a driver's license since 1996. Years later, voters approved a ballot measure that mandated new voters prove their citizenship to participate in state and local races. When a person signs up to vote, election officials check motor vehicle records to see if they have already satisfied the proof of citizenship requirement.

However, the Motor Vehicle Division coded its database in a way that would change the issuance date of an Arizonan's license if they requested a duplicate. That means someone could have gotten a driver's license before 1996 without proving their citizenship, received a duplicate one that updated the license issuance date, and then were incorrectly registered to vote a full ballot.

The error allowed a group of voters to slip through the cracks. These voters swore under the penalty of criminal charges that they were U.S. citizens. Many have been on the voter rolls for years. Some have never voted, and some may have provided proof of citizenship.

But election officials cannot currently determine with absolute certainty whether those in the group handed over citizenship documents.

Who is impacted?

Affected voters first received a driver's license or state identification card prior to 1996. That means most of them are older. Many are between 45 and 60 years old.

The largest group of impacted voters — about 37% — are Republicans. Roughly 27% are Democrats, and the remaining 35% are independents or third-party voters.

The voters live all across Arizona, spaced in rough proportion to the state's population centers and remote areas.

Voters with licenses compliant with "Real ID" requirements aren't among the group of impacted voters. Obtaining those licenses, which were authorized by the Real ID Act in 2005, requires Arizonans to show documentary proof of citizenship.

Beyond that, officials say there's currently no way to determine if you are among the group of voters caught in the coding error. They have pledged to reach out to impacted voters as soon as possible with next steps.

Arizona voters can check their registration status at any time via the state's election information portal, but that currently won't reflect whether a voter is impacted by this issue.

Sasha Hupka covers county government and election administration for The Arizona Republic. Reach her at [email protected]. Follow her on X: @SashaHupka. Follow her on Instagram or Threads: @sashahupkasnaps. Sign up for her weekly election newsletter, Republic Recount.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: AZ court: Voters impacted by coding error will get full ballot.