The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday that about 98,000 undocumented immigrants can vote in state and local elections.
The court order came after officials discovered a database error that misidentified voters with full ballot access for two decades. Voting rights were not an issue in federal elections.
Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, and Stephen Richer, a Republican from Maricopa, have been at odds over voter registration. Richer asked the high court to weigh in, saying Fontes was ignoring state law by advising county officials to allow affected voters to cast their full ballots.
Fontes said not allowing voters who believe they have access to voting requirements to complete ballots raises concerns about equality and due process.
The Supreme Court agreed with Fontes. It says county officials do not have the authority to change voters’ status because those voters have long been registered and certified as citizens under penalty of law. Prosecutors also said the voters were not to blame for the database error, citing the short time remaining before the Nov. 5 general election.
Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer said in her decision that “in light of these facts, we are not prepared to disenfranchise voters en masse.”
Of the nearly 98,000 affected voters, most live in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, and are longtime residents of the state, between the ages of 45 and 60. About 37% of them are registered Republicans and about 27% are registered Democrats, and the remainder are not affiliated with any party or registered members of minor parties.
Arizona is unique among states in that it requires voters to prove their citizenship to participate in local and state elections. Voters can prove their citizenship by providing a driver’s license or tribal identification number, or they can attach a copy of their birth certificate, passport, or naturalization documents.
Arizona considers driver’s licenses issued after October 1996 as proof of citizenship. However, a coding error in the system flagged about 98,000 voters who were licensed before 1996 — about 2.5 percent of all registered voters — as full-time voters, state officials said.
The error between the state’s voter registration database and the Department of Motor Vehicles did not affect the presidential race. But that number of votes could tip the balance in close contests in the state Legislature, where Republicans hold slim majorities in both chambers.
It could also affect ballot measures including constitutional abortion rights and the criminalization of noncitizens who enter Arizona through Mexico at any location other than a port of entry.
Although Richer and Fontes disagreed, both welcomed the verdict.
“Thank God,” Richer said on the social media platform X. He told The Associated Press on Thursday that it would be administratively easier to maintain voter status.
In a press release, Fontes called the ruling “a significant victory for those who controlled the fundamental right to vote.” He added that election officials will contact voters who need to renew their citizenship documents after the general election.
Potentially affected voters are also happy.
After discovering it this week, John Groseclose waited an hour and a half at the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Tempe only to discover that the employee in front of him was unaware of the problem and did not know how to update his selector registration, despite presenting an official birth certificate and a new passport.
Responding to the court’s verdict, he said there should be no rush to resolve the issue next week.
“I’m glad that none of us will lose because of the mistake the MVD made 20 years ago,” Groseclose told the AP.
Govindaro writes for the Associated Press.
