Roughly 100,000 Arizona residents may not be eligible to vote on the “full ballot” in Arizona’s general election in November due to an “administrative error” that has allowed residents to vote in elections without providing the required proof of citizenship.
In a Tuesday post on X, formerly Twitter, Stephen Richer, Maricopa County Recorder, that the number of individuals impacted by the issue is approximately 97,000.
“All of these people have attested under penalty of law that they are U.S. citizens,” Richer said. “And, in all likelihood, they almost all U.S. Citizens. But they have NOT provided documented proof of citizenship.”
ABC15 reported that the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office recently discovered that the “administrative error” has allowed state residents to vote in state and municipal elections without “proof of citizenship.”
According to Fox 10, Arizona has required proof of citizenship to vote since 2004. However, if an Arizona resident received a driver’s license before 1996, the state’s motor vehicle division’s records do not show proof of citizenship. As a result, due to an issue in the state’s database, when drivers with older licenses register to vote, the department has mistakingly allowed residents to vote on a “full ballot” despite lacking proof of citizenship.
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“It is my position that these registrants have not satisfied Arizona’s documented proof of citizenship law, and therefore can only vote a ‘FED ONLY’ ballot,” Richer said. “The Secretary argues that it is too close to the election to implement such a change and that it would be unduly burdensome on voters and deprive them of their voting rights. That is why we are going to the courts. To get a clear answer.”
According to Arizona Clean Elections, a federal only voter is an individual who registers to vote but does not provide the state with proof of citizenship or proof of residence. Federal only voters are only permitted to vote in federal elections for president, senators, and members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
On the other hand, Arizona Clean Elections describes full ballot voters as individuals who have “provided documentary proof of citizenship and residency when registering to vote.” Full ballot voters are eligible to vote in federal, state, and local elections.
Following the revelation of the “administrative error” that could affect nearly 100,000 voters in the state’s general election, Governor Katie Hobbs (D-Ariz.) released a statement, saying, “As soon as I became aware of the problem, I directed MVD to work with the SOS to aggressively develop and implement a solution and, out of an abundance of caution, will be implementing an independent audit to ensure that MVD systems are functioning as necessary to support voter registration.”
