PHOENIX — State and county officials are investigating an "administrative issue" impacting the voting status and ballots of some people living in Arizona who have not provided documentation of U.S. citizenship.
The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office says it found about 97,000 registrants impacted by an "administrative error." According to officials, these voters could have had access to a full ballot for decades when they should have been receiving a federal-only ballot.
Secretary of State Adrian Fontes held a news conference to elaborate on the issue.
Later today, my office (@RecordersOffice) is suing the Secretary's office (@AZSecretary) regarding how to handle certain voters who need to provide documented proof of citizenship.
— Stephen Richer—MaricopaCountyRecorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) September 17, 2024
Since 2004, Arizona has been the only state in the country to require that a voter provide…
Beginning Dec. 8, 2004, Arizona law required registrants who provided documentation to receive full ballots and those who did not provide documentation to receive federal-only ballots. According to the law, a driver’s license issued after Oct. 1, 1996, could be used as proof of citizenship.
An MVD and "AVID system" administrative issue reportedly involved duplicate licenses and their issuance dates.
“The AVID system was programmed to query the duplicate issuance date and would not alert the county that the license was originally issued before 10/1/1996,” according to the governor’s office.
"This flaw has existed since 2004. In every county. Across the state," Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said on X on Tuesday.
The issue was discovered and reportedly brought to the governor’s attention on Sept. 7. The governor's office says the corrections have been developed and will be corrected “pending final action by the Secretary of State.”
The Secretary of State and County Recorder reportedly differ on their positions on how to move forward. Richer says the issue will be going to courts “to get a clear answer.”
Governor Katie Hobbs released the following statement about the issue on Tuesday:
“After Recorder Richer brought an erroneous voter registration record to my attention, my team identified and fixed an administrative error that originated in 2004, and affects longtime residents who received a driver’s license before 1996. As soon as I became aware of the problem, I directed MVD to work with the SOS to aggressively develop and implement a solution and, out of an abundance of caution, will be implementing an independent audit to ensure that MVD systems are functioning as necessary to support voter registration. I’m proud of MVD for their hard work implementing a fix to this problem in record time.”
According to Arizona Clean Elections, “A Federal Only Voter is a voter who registers to vote, but does not provide documentary proof of citizenship or proof of residency, and/or the county recorder is unable to ascertain citizenship status of the voter. Therefore, the federal-only voter may only vote in federal elections (President, U.S. Senator, and U.S. House of Representatives).”
A Full Ballot voter has “provided documentary proof of citizenship and residency when registering to vote, or the county recorder ascertained proof of citizenship from the voter registration database or the Motor Vehicle Division. A full ballot includes federal elections, state elections and local elections.”
AMERICA VOTES 2024: FULL LOCAL, NATIONAL ELECTION COVERAGE
Many federal-only voters have been identified as college students, for example, because they do not have immediate access to their birth certificates while attending school.
While some may not provide documentary proof of citizenship upon voting registration, "voters must still attest under penalty of perjury that they are a United States citizen when they register to vote,” election officials say.
See more information about the issue from the Secretary of State's Office in the document below:
In Arizona, the voter registration deadline for the upcoming election is Oct. 7, 2024.
