Officials in Arizona have discovered a flaw that allowed more than 97,000 residents to vote in state and local races despite not providing proof of citizenship, which is required by law.
The Arizona Supreme Court has been petitioned to determine whether the people can still vote in November without providing proof of citizenship.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer’s office found the flaw.
In 1996, Arizona started requiring residents to provide proof of citizenship to obtain driver’s licenses. In 2004, Arizona started requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal, state, and local races. If no proof was presented, then residents could register to vote in federal races only.
That same law let voters present driver’s licenses issued after Oct. 1, 1996, to prove citizenship.
The error in the statewide voter registration database accepted a person’s license as proof of citizenship even if the license was a duplicate of one issued before 1996 when no proof of citizenship was required to obtain it. A duplicate license can be issued, for example, if a person loses or damages his or her license.
The error means that 97,688 voters have been able to vote in state and local races for years despite not meeting the legal requirements.
“This flaw has existed since 2004. In every county. Across the state,” Richer posted on social media platform X on Sept. 17.
The flaw was discovered about one week ago when a noncitizen was found to be registered to vote in federal, state, and local races, according to Richer’s office. Officials said the person did not cast any ballots.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said that the voters should be allowed to vote in November despite the lack of proof of citizenship.
“[The secretary of state is] unwilling to disenfranchise this many voters by limiting them suddenly, and with little notice, to a federal-only ballot when none of them had notice of or blame for this issue,” according to a letter that Fontes’s office sent to county records.
Richer said the residents have not met the legal requirements so should be allowed to vote only in federal races.
He petitioned the Arizona Supreme Court to ask for a ruling that backed his position. The petition is against Fontes.
“Because Arizona law requires that affected voters be made federal only unless and until they provide [proof of citizenship], and because the secretary has issued conflicting guidance, only this court can resolve this controversy and provide the necessary certainty for the 2024 general election,” the petition states.
Richer asked justices to weigh in before ballots are sent to some voters, including overseas voters, on Sept. 21.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said in a statement that after learning about the issue, she directed the Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) to work with the secretary of state’s office to fix the problem so no additional voters would be listed as being eligible to vote in state and local races despite lacking proof of citizenship.
“I’m proud of MVD for their hard work implementing a fix to this problem in record time,” Hobbs said.
Most of the voters are between the ages of 45 and 60, according to officials, and the majority live in Maricopa County. A plurality are Republicans, although large numbers are independents or Democrats.
“We have no reason to believe that there are any significant numbers of individuals remaining on this list who are not eligible to vote in Arizona,” Fontes said at a news briefing. “We cannot confirm that at this moment, but we don’t have any reason to believe that.”
If the Arizona Supreme Court sides with Richer, Fontes said, people identified as part of the more than 97,000 affected residents will be notified and can submit proof of citizenship through an electronic portal that the secretary of state’s office is currently developing.
Zachary Stieber is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times based in Maryland. He covers U.S. and world news.
Reprinted with Permission from The Epoch Times – By Zachary Stieber
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
“If no proof was presented, then residents could register to vote in federal races only.” You’d think federal races are the ones needing the most protection!!
Duplicate content to reach the minimum word count, AMAC? C’mon, you can do better than this! Someone needs to actually read the reprints before posting them…
This is the same sort of “error” that the Democrats have successfully exploited in a number of states around the country leading up to the November elections. I would say “Wake up America”, but that is a waste of time at this point. The clock has run out and, as usual, as way too many state politicians on our side were w-a-y too slow to head this off before the Democrats could exploit things for their advantage. The Democrats have already managed to add millions of illegal aliens to the voter rolls across the country at this point. Mail-in ballots are already starting to show up in voters’ mailboxes, with voters scheduled to start making their choices shortly.
Republicans, at the state level, had nearly 4 years to straighten out the mess caused by allowing mail-in voting, with little to no verification of ID or citizenship, to become wide-spread in this country and thus allow for all sorts of mischief by the Democrats. The Republicans at the state level, except for a very few exceptions, did next to nothing. As a result, with now less than 50 days before the most important election in our lifetimes, we are once again running around at the last possible minute trying to undo the massive damage to voter integrity the Democrats have achieved. Good luck with that. No federal judge at this point is going to pause all voting in the state of Arizona or anywhere else where this same thing has already happened until the voter rolls can be cleaned up.
Is the “Error” corrected? Will it be corrected before the coming election? How many other “errors” are there right across the country? Last election was an open fraud and all is well in the land of Lilliput.Democrats are winners same as the transsexual men competing as women
Arizona permitting illegals to vote in federal elections is just another win – win for the Damnocraps. The reason the Damnocraps let all the illegals in was to totally screw up the 2024 presidential election!
az cheats thats how we got the idiot gov and ag
One man’s opinion. “And nothing will happen”! I pray I am wrong but my gut tells me otherwise.
How stupid can you get? This is a big BORDER state, illegals just waltz into it.
Fonts should be jailed for 10 years and should have to read The Constitution of The United States 8 hours a day! While he’s an inmate.
Who cares about democracy will teach the American people the only way to win is to cheat
The duplication of paragraphs in this article seems to follow the Dems way of handling votes especially in presidential elections. Proof-reading not done in AMAC?
I am praying that the Lies be revealed Truth be seen
Isn’t it illegal for a noncitizen to vote in federal elections, also? I thought I had read the article wrong, but, no, it said they would be allowed to vote in federal elections without proof of citizenship.
And those are just ones they found….
Let me guess… and they all voted Democrat, right?
I listened to a podcast called “Dead People for Kamala” but all it was was dead air!
“The Secretary of State is unwilling to disenfranchise this many voters…”
If they have not proved citizenship, THEY ARE NOT VOTERS!! You can’t “disenfranchise” people who are not eligible to vote in the first place! Whose side are you on??
I just love how they label it as a flaw???