No more curveballs for Arizona voters affected by 20-year-old voter registration issue

PHOENIX — Last week’s revelation of a 20-year-old voter registration system error left thousands of Arizona voters uncertain about their status.

However, Arizona’s 2024 election season will proceed without changes due to a Friday court ruling, according to Secretary of State Adrian Fontes.

“We’re going to go on and do our election as usual,” Fontes told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News on Monday. “Rest assured: The state Supreme Court gave us a very definitive and final ruling for now.”

That means nearly 98,000 registered voters whose ability to vote in state and local elections was called into question can breathe a collective sigh of relief. They won’t be limited to voting only in federal elections on Nov. 5, which had been a legal concern for many.

What caused voter registration system error in Arizona?

These concerns emerged after the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office discovered the issue, which stemmed from a glitch in the interface between the state’s voter registration database and the Motor Vehicle Division (MVD).

“The interface between MVD and the voter registration system ended up giving us false positives when it came to whether or not people had provided documented proof of citizenship,” Fontes said.

The voter registration error impacted Arizona voters who obtained their driver’s licenses before Oct. 1, 1996, and who later received duplicate licenses.

Why was the issue worrying Arizona voters ahead of Election Day?

Upon discovering the glitch, Arizona election officials rushed to find a solution.

“We ended up deciding that the best way to solve this problem was to go straight to the Arizona Supreme Court,” Fontes said.

He and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer decided to advocate for two opposing solutions to the issue for the sake of the lawsuit.

“Richer would take one side of the lawsuit for one solution,” Fontes said. “I would take the other side.”

.@heidi_hommel explains the error and what comes next. pic.twitter.com/BCn2f6fAQm

— KTAR News 92.3 (@KTAR923) September 18, 2024

Richer, a Republican, said registered voters affected by the issue who haven’t provided required proof of citizenship should get federal-only ballots. This would have rendered them ineligible to vote in state and local races.

Fontes, a Democrat, said the 2024 general election should proceed as it had in previous years. Essentially, he wanted authorities to solve the voter registration error after the election.

What did Arizona Supreme Court rule on voting registration system error?

The Arizona Supreme Court agreed with Fontes in a Friday ruling.

“Everybody who was voting full ballots in the past will still be voting full ballots,” Fontes said. “It is status quo through this election.”

Although it was good news, election officials in Arizona now have to solve the issue, he added.

“We are already working on developing the solutions,” Fontes said.

Fontes said it’s possible that drivers who received their licenses before the 1996 date may have to provide documentation of citizenship at a later date.

“If that does happen, it won’t be until after this election,” Fontes said. “However, we had already, in my office, been preparing to try to scoop up all these documents from nearly 100,000 Arizona voters.”

How was this voter registration system error possible?

Part of the reason why this was an issue in the first place is due to Arizona’s unique requirement that voters prove their citizenship to be eligible to cast ballots, Fontes said.

“Arizona forces our citizens to take this extra step. That’s why we have fed-only ballots in Arizona,” Fontes said. “It’s a very different standard than everybody else in the country.”

He described it as an extraordinary burden unique to voters in the Grand Canyon state.

Although he and other election officials are working to resolve the issues caused by the voter citizenship glitch, they’re mainly focused on making Election Day run as smoothly as possible.

“I wanted to make sure everybody could vote in every election that they were eligible for,” Fontes said. “We are going to have to enforce this later, but not till after the election. And we’re gearing up to do that.”