Maricopa County incorrectly flagged about 2,000 long-time registered voters as needing to provide proof of citizenship to vote in Tuesday’s election, county officials said Sunday. Confirmed.

That number includes about 900 voters in Pinal County who were also misinformed. Votebeat first reported on Saturday..

Officials in both counties say voters who were incorrectly asked for information must provide proof of citizenship by 7 p.m. Tuesday to vote in this election, as some voters were originally told. No need to submit.

If voters already tried to vote early and their votes were held up or invalidated, those votes will now be counted. There is no problem for voters who have not yet cast a ballot to vote.

That means these voters have a chance to help determine the outcome of the election in this divided battleground state, where everything from the presidential election to statewide ballot proposals is expected to be close.

Maricopa County has moved voters to “unregistered status.” That means they are not on a valid voter rolls, said Taylor Kinup, a spokeswoman for the county recorder’s office. If any of those voters voted early, the county likely initially invalidated their ballots. Since then, officials have been “working to restore the invalidated ballots…those votes have since been moved forward,” Kinnup said.

Officials restored the voter status on October 21, Kinnup said. He did not respond to questions about why the government changed its policy.

After learning of the issue in Pinal County, VoteBeat reached out to the state’s largest county, which includes Maricopa, to see if any misinformation was reaching voters there as well.

Beyond Maricopa and Pinal counties, it’s unclear whether other counties had false flags on their voter registrations and whether that would prevent some voters from voting Tuesday. The other three counties surveyed so far – Pima, Yavapai and Coconino – all said they had not falsely flagged any voters in their systems.

The cause of the problem is as follows two recent Court decisions regarding proof of state citizenship requirements.

Arizona Supreme Court won’t restrict 97,000 improperly registered voters

The affected voters were attempting to renew their voter registrations just before the Oct. 7 voter registration deadline. The county flagged these registrations because the county changed the way it processes voter registration forms, both in response to two separate court rulings regarding state law requirements for proof of citizenship for voters.

Arizona has its own laws requiring proof of citizenship to vote in state and local elections. Federal law only requires applicants to prove citizenship to vote. If an Arizona applicant does not provide proof of citizenship, he or she will be placed on a “federal-only” voter list and will be restricted from voting in federal elections, such as presidential and congressional elections.

The first recent court decision related to state laws regarding proof of citizenship: The U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision on August 22nd. If a voter registers using a state form and does not provide proof of citizenship, county recorders would be required to reject the voter’s voter registration form outright. Previously, these voters were registered as federal-only voters. The ruling will remain in effect until the court can fully consider the case.

The second court ruling was based on a flaw in the Department of Motor Vehicles’ database that caused about 218,000 people who had held driver’s licenses for years to receive full licenses even though they had not submitted proof of citizenship. The decision came after the state realized he had become an eligible voter. The Arizona Supreme Court issued its decision on September 20th. Those voters will not be required to provide proof of citizenship until after the November election.

Still, shortly after the state discovered the MVD problem, the state flagged 218,000 voters who tried to change their voter records and notified counties that they had not yet submitted proof of citizenship. The system has been reprogrammed. The Secretary of State’s Office instructed county recorders in early October that they should continue to allow full-ballot voting through November and beyond, despite the system’s warnings to these voters.

Instead, from the time the state’s system is reprogrammed until the Oct. 7 voter registration deadline, voters in Maricopa or Pinal counties on this list of 218,000 people will be able to use the state’s form to record their voter registration. attempted to renew, each county flagged the registration until it was completed. They provided proof of citizenship.

Both counties mailed letters to at least some of these residents informing them that they needed to provide proof of citizenship before voting.

“After further consideration, the decision was made to fully restore these voters from unregistered status, but only if they were previously existing registered voters,” Kinnaap said Sunday. “This means that Maricopa County voters affected by the previously discovered MVD data surveillance have been reverted to full or feed-only voting in the upcoming election.”