PHOENIX (AP) — Nearly 100,000 voters who failed to submit identification documents could be unable to participate in Arizona’s state and local elections, a significant number for the state that has seen a close election.
Tuesday’s announcement about an error in state-run databases that reclassified voters comes just days before county election officials are required to mail ballots to uniformed and out-of-state voters.
Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Republican Maricopa County Clerk Stephen Richer disagree over whether voters should have access to the full ballot or should only be allowed to vote in federal elections.
Arizona is unique among states in requiring voters to prove their citizenship in order to participate in local and state elections. Those who have not done so, but have sworn to do so under penalty of law, may only participate in federal elections.
Arizona considers driver’s licenses issued after October 1996 as valid proof of citizenship. However, a system coding error marked 97,000 voters who obtained a driver’s license before 1996 — about 2.5 percent of all registered voters — as full voters, state officials said.
While the error between the state’s voter registration database and the Department of Motor Vehicles will not affect the presidential election, that number of voters could prove decisive in tight races in the state Legislature, where Republicans hold slim majorities in both chambers.
It could also have implications for voter sentiments, including the constitutional right to abortion and criminalizing non-citizens entering Arizona through Mexico at a location other than a border crossing.
Fontes said in a statement that the 97,000 voters are longtime Arizonans and the majority are Republicans, so they should be able to fully participate in the general election.
Maricopa County Clerk Stephen Richer said his office identified the problem earlier this month and plans to sue Fontes’ office Tuesday afternoon, asking a court to classify the voters as federal-only voters.
“I believe these registrants have not met Arizona’s documentary evidence of citizenship law, and therefore can only cast a ‘FED ONLY’ ballot,” Richer wrote on the social media platform X.
