The state's Supreme Court has confirmed that nearly 100,000 citizens affected by a registration glitch will be able to vote on the full ballot in the imminent general election. This decision arrives after Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, who is soon to be outgoing, reported an error that enabled unverified voters to register since 2004. Richer disclosed this information on his personal X account on Sept. 20, according to FOX 10 Phoenix.
As the law stands, the state Supreme Court ruled that voters who registered before January 24, 2005, "are deemed to have provided satisfactory evidence of [documentary proof of citizenship]" and need not re-submit such evidence, barring a change of their registration from one county to another. Furthermore, the court clarified that Richer "has not established that the county recorders have statutory authority to remove the Affected Voters from being able to vote in the upcoming 2024 General Election for federal offices and concerning matters on an Arizona ballot," as FOX 10 Phoenix reports. A portion of the court ruling also reiterated the principle that "We are unwilling on these facts to disenfranchise voters en masse from participating in state contests."
This judicial decision effectively overruled the Maricopa County Recorder's Office's initial desire to only allow those affected by the glitch to vote on a federal-only ballot – which would include merely federal offices. The glitch, which allowed individuals to erroneously slip through registration without documented proof of citizenship, was recently acknowledged by the Maricopa County Recorder's office, with Richer attributing the majority of the affected voters to likely being U.S. citizens, as reported by FOX 10 Phoenix. These citizens inadvertently received access to a full ballot for years when, according to state law, they should have been receiving a federal-only ballot.
Concerning this, further complications were revealed when an "AVID system" administrative issue involving duplicate licenses was identified. According to the governor's office, “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." Governor Katie Hobbs' office has since stated that corrections to this problem have been developed and will be made effective "pending final action by the Secretary of State," as outlined by ABC15.
Additionally, discrepancies in how to proceed with the registration error became evident between the Maricopa County Recorder and the Secretary of State, leading to legal action for clarity. While the courts have now provided direction, this case exposed long-standing administrative oversights that potentially impacted the right to vote in local, state, and national elections. Election officials remind, as per ABC15, that while some voters may lack documented proof of citizenship when registering, "voters must still attest under penalty of perjury that they are a United States citizen."
