Arizona Supreme Court rules 98K voters impacted by systems error can vote with a full ballot

PHOENIX – The Arizona Supreme Court ruled on Friday that nearly 100,000 voters impacted by a voter registration system error will receive full ballots this election.

The ruling comes three days after Arizona election officials scrambled to resolve a systems glitch related to proof of citizenship and voter registration. The system error involved the Motor Vehicle Division and how it registered voters.

Arizona is unique among states in that it requires voters to prove their citizenship to participate in local and state races. Voters can demonstrate citizenship by providing a driver’s license or tribal ID number, or they can attach a copy of a birth certificate, passport or naturalization documents.

Arizona considers drivers’ licenses issued after October 1996 to be valid proof of citizenship. However, a system coding error marked nearly 98,000 voters who obtained licenses before 1996 — roughly 2.5% of all registered voters — as full-ballot voters, state officials said.

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer filed a “friendly lawsuit” against Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to bring the issue to the courts.

The high court ruled in favor of Fontes. It said county officials lack the authority to change the voters’ statuses because those voters registered long ago and had attested under the penalty of law that they are citizens. The justices also said the voters were not at fault for the database error and also mentioned the little time that’s left before the Nov. 5 general election.

“We are unwilling on these facts to disenfranchise voters en masse from participating in state contests,” Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer said in the ruling.

Fontes and Richer both posted on X to celebrate the court’s decision that will allow citizens to vote on federal and state elections.

“We won. No voters on ‘the list’ will be made Fed-Only,” Fontes said on X.

We won.
No voters on “the list” will be made Fed-Only.
Congrats team.
Thank you amici.
Now…let’s go have an election!!#ProtectDemocracy

— Adrian Fontes (@Adrian_Fontes) September 21, 2024

“AZ Supreme Court ruled for defendant (Fontes). The 100k registrants will continue to vote a full ballot this election. Thank God,” Richer posted on X.

AZ Supreme Court ruled for defendant (Fontes). The 100k registrants will continue to vote a full ballot this election.

Thank God.

Thank you Arizona Supreme Court for your extremely quick and professional review of this matter.

Thank you @Adrian_Fontes, @AZSecretary for…

— Stephen Richer—MaricopaCountyRecorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) September 21, 2024

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Follow @KTAR923