Arizona authorities scramble to correct 'administrative oversight' for voters lacking verified citizenship status
According to authorities, a technical blunder led to an incorrect labeling of these voters, suggesting they had submitted papers confirming their citizenship – a requirement for participating in state and local elections in Arizona – despite no record of such occurrence.
This oversight doesn't impact anyone's right to vote in the 2024 presidential election at the federal level, as such documents aren't necessary for federal voting in Arizona. However, it might influence state legislative races and Arizona's ballot referendum on reproductive rights.
Politicians, including former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies, have brought forth unsubstantiated allegations of numerous noncitizens casting votes in American elections. Nonpartisan analysts contend that illegal voting by noncitizens is exceptionally rare and quickly identified.
Officials have explained the Arizona scenario as a "clerical error" and a "computer glitch" that isn't associated with any wider attempt to corrupt the 2024 election's integrity.
"Ultimately, it was a clerical mistake that we aim to rectify for the voters," mentioned Taylor Kinnerup, a spokeswoman for the Maricopa County Recorder's office, which oversees Phoenix-area elections and identified the issue earlier this month.
The glitch affected around 97,000 voters whose driver's licenses were issued prior to 1996, which is the year Arizona began requiring citizenship proof for obtaining a driver's license. At some point subsequently, these individuals were mistakenly classified in the voter rolls as having already demonstrated their citizenship – despite no documentation supporting this.
The office filed a "goodwill lawsuit" on Tuesday, imploring the Arizona Supreme Court to decide if these 97,000 voters should receive the comprehensive 2024 ballot or the restricted "federal-only" Arizona ballot designed for residents who fail to meet tighter citizenship criteria (those people can only vote in federal – not state – elections).
"These individuals have sworn, owing to legal penalty, that they are citizens, so we see no reason to doubt their eligibility," Kinnerup stated. "However, according to the law, as we currently perceive it, they have not provided conclusive proof of citizenship. That's why we've brought a lawsuit. We're striving to interpret the law accurately."
The lawsuit was initiated by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican who opposed right-wing election deniers and upheld the legitimacy of the 2020 results.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, stated in a press release that the issue affected "long-term Arizonans" mainly affiliated with the Republican party. His office advocates for full ballots for these 97,000 voters to enable voting in both federal and state races in 2022, while Richer supports providing them with the "federal-only" ballots.
Trump shared a news article about the Arizona glitch on his Truth Social platform, cryptically remarking, "Attempting to manipulate the election!" This represents an extension of Trump's pattern of fueling fears around common errors in the voting process by propagating unfounded concerns about widespread fraud in U.S. elections.
Fontes and other secretaries of state discussed measures to secure the 2024 election during a Capitol Hill hearing last week. While Republicans exploited the occasion to stir fears about noncitizens jeopardizing the results, Fontes suggested that attempts to crack down often backfire and result in eliminating more eligible voters from the list.
“I find no satisfaction in the notion that eligible citizens were denied the chance to vote, at a higher rate than the extremely seldom occurrence of noncitizen voting that is often alleged across the United States of America,” Fontes stated last week.
This error in the voter rolls could potentially impact the outcomes of state legislative races in Arizona due to the misunderstanding about the citizenship status of some voters. The ongoing dispute over these 97,000 voters and their eligibility for the comprehensive 2024 ballot has become a major topic in Arizona politics.
