(The Center Square) – The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that a Department of Motor Vehicles code error that allowed nearly 100,000 Maricopa County voters to vote in local elections without verifying proof of citizenship will not bar them from participating in this year's local elections.
The question of whether those roughly 98,000 voters will be able to cast their full ballot, as they have for the past 20 years, stems from an error Maricopa County Recorder Steven Richer discovered during a “routine voter roll maintenance.”
This applies to voters who obtained their driver's license before October 1, 1996. Before that date, voters were not required to provide proof of residency to register to vote, only an oath under penalty of perjury, as is the case in the rest of the United States.
But when driver’s licenses were reissued to these individuals after 2004 (when AVID began to fail in this way), the system did not require MVD to obtain proof of citizenship.
According to a statement from Gov. Katie Hobbs, after the error was reported on Sept. 7, she will direct MVD to fix the problem and will request an independent audit to “ensure MVD's systems are performing the functions necessary to support voter registration.”
Federal law requires residents to simply swear to their citizenship under oath, but Arizona is the only state in the U.S. that requires proof of citizenship when registering to vote.
“This happened because of flawed policy, which, by the way, is unique in the United States,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said at a press conference last week. “All of these voters met the minimum standard required to vote in an election across the United States, which is to swear under penalty of perjury. I believe Arizona is unique in imposing an undue burden on its voters. This is the result of flawed policy and an underfunded government system.”
To resolve this issue, Mr Fontes entered into “amicable litigation” with Mr Richer, with Mr Fontes taking the position that these voters should continue to be able to cast their full vote, and Mr Richer taking the position that these voters should only be able to vote in federal elections.
Numerous amicus briefs were filed in support of Fontes' position, including from the Arizona Republican Party, the League of Women Voters of Arizona, Coconino Recorder Patty Hansen, Pima County Recorder Gabriela Cazares Kelley, the San Carlos Apache Tribe, the Arizona Coalition for Changing Lives, the League of Arizona Latino Citizens, Mi Familia Vota and the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona.
“Today is a huge victory for people whose fundamental right to vote has been under scrutiny,” Fontes said Friday. “The Court was faced with a tough choice: allow voters to participate in just a few federal elections with a limited ballot, or give voters a voice in hundreds of decisions with a full ballot that includes a wide range of local and state offices. I am deeply grateful for the Arizona Supreme Court's swift and fair decision.”
Those voters will be allowed to cast their full ballot in November, but will be required to provide proof of citizenship on their voter registration records in order to vote in future elections.
