The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday that about 98,000 Arizona residents who are not yet registered to vote will be able to participate in the full ballot in November.
Uncertainty over the voters’ fate arose after the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office discovered a 2004 clerical error that allowed nearly 100,000 Arizona residents to be granted voter registration status despite being unable to provide proof of citizenship.
“Today is an important victory for those whose fundamental right to vote was under scrutiny,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democratic state attorney, said in a statement. “We are deeply grateful to the Arizona Supreme Court for its swift and just resolution,” Fontes added.
The administrative blunder was first discovered earlier this month by the Maricopa County recorder’s office. In 2005, Arizona state law required documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. The state considers driver’s licenses issued after October 1996 as documentary proof of citizenship.
But residents who had been licensed before 1996 and later received a replacement ID were automatically deemed to have “documented proof of citizenship in possession of the MVD,” when in fact no proof had been provided. As a result of stricter regulations imposed in 2004, those voters were never asked to comply with the stricter rules, leaving the voting status of 97,928 Arizona residents in limbo.
“We are unwilling to disenfranchise voters in state elections on the basis of these facts. Doing so is not permitted by state law and would violate due process principles,” Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer wrote in the Arizona Supreme Court decision.
Maricopa County Clerk Stephen Richer filed the lawsuit on Tuesday and worked with Fontes to resolve the issue.
“Thank God,” Richer posted on X Friday night following the court’s decision. “Thank you, Arizona Supreme Court, for your extremely prompt and professional review of this case,” Richer added.
With just weeks to go before early voting begins in Arizona, Fontes’ office argued that the 98,000 voters should be able to vote on full ballots, casting their ballots at both the federal and local levels. Richer’s office argued that these voters could only participate at the federal level.
Arizona GOP Chairwoman Gina Swoboda joined them in cheering the court’s decision. In an interview with NBC News on Friday night, Swoboda said, “I couldn’t be happier with this outcome.”
“We are deeply grateful to the state Supreme Court for protecting the votes of nearly 98,000 voters who were at risk of disenfranchisement in this election,” she added.
Swoboda has been critical of Arizona’s voting procedures since taking office earlier this year, frequently advocating for more public oversight of voter rolls.
But in this particular case, with early voting in Arizona beginning next month, she finds herself among an unusual bipartisan coalition of election officials.
“I just couldn’t agree with the secretary more,” Swoboda said. “I think that in itself speaks to all of us who recognize that the weight and responsibility of ensuring that all voters are given the right to vote outweighs any particular political interest,” she added.
Early voting in Arizona begins on October 9.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
