An estimated 98,000 longtime Arizona voters could face limited choices on the November ballot because of a two-decade-old computer-coding error that doesn't show whether they provided proof of citizenship when they registered.
The discovery of the error, by a member of Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer's staff, comes the week before ballots will be mailed to overseas voters and 22 days before early ballots go out statewide.
VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL: Funcionarios de Arizona intentan corregir ‘error’ que podría afectar la registración de votantes
According to the Arizona Secretary of State's office, most of the affected voters are older and lean Republican. All received driver's licenses issued before 1996. The office provided a one-page explainer of the problem.
Elections Officials Going to Court
State elections officials are asking the state's highest court to tell them what to do.
Richer planned to file an emergency motion with the Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday, asking the court to designate the affected voters as "federal-only voters." Under federal law, voters who attest to their citizenship but don't provide documented proof remain eligible to vote in federal races only.
Richer will also ask the court whether the affected can submit proof of citizenship in order to vote the full ballot.
Secretary of State Adrian Fontes will then file a response asking the court to allow the voters to cast ballots in state and local elections, as well as federal races.
"The reality is that no system is perfect," Fontes' office said in a prepared statement.
"However, the issue was discovered as election officials around the state are checking and double checking their work ahead of the election in order to ensure Arizona's election is safe, secure and accurate. In that sense, our election administration process is working as it should."
Governor Orders Fixes
The computer-coding error stems from the voter-approved Arizona law in 2004 that requires voters to document their citizenship in order to cast a ballot in state and local elections. Richer said this "flaw" had been in place since 2004.
Gov. Katie Hobbs said she's directed the Motor Vehicle Division to fix the computer-coding issues.
The governor said she was informed Sept. 7 of an "administrative error" regarding how Arizona checks whether voters have provided proof of citizenship.
A driver's license issued in Arizona after 1996 was considered, under the law, to be a valid proof of citizenship. But if someone who received a license before 1996 and then had it replaced sometime after 1996, the database would show them as having received the license on the date that the duplicate was issued.
Therefore, the system would not alert the county that the license was originally issued before 1996.
"As soon as I became aware of the problem, I directed MVD to work with the SOS to aggressively develop and implement a solution and, out of an abundance of caution, will be implementing an independent audit to ensure that MVD systems are functioning as necessary to support voter registration," the governor said.
In all likelihood, Richer said, almost all of these registrants are citizens but "they have NOT provided documented proof of citizenship."
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