PHOENIX — After the Maricopa County Recorder's Office uncovered a 20-year glitch involving 98,000 Arizona voters who hadn't provided proof of citizenship, the Arizona Motor Vehicle Department is taking action to identify these voters.
According to elections officials, the data glitch involves Arizona residents who got a driver's license before October 1, 1996, and became registered to vote after 2004, when Arizona law began mandating proof of citizenship on voter registration forms.
Arizona MVD said it would assign a code for everyone who got a driver's license before Oct. 1, 1996. This will alert the Secretary of State's office that these voters may need to provide additional information, namely their citizenship information.
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On Tuesday, 12News profiled a non-citizen, Luc Leemans, who has been living in Arizona for over 40 years on a green card sponsored by his U.S.-based company. Leemans renewed his drivers license in 2021 and started receiving voting material in the mail.
According to Leemans voter records, he had attested under the penalty of perjury that he was a U.S. citizen. Leemans said Tuesday he was sure he never would have checked "yes" on the citizenship question.
Leemans has never voted in Arizona and has since deregistered to vote. It's unclear if he was one of the 98,000 people impacted by the MVD data glitch. He did get a license before 1996 and became registered to vote after 2004. He also never had to provide proof of citizenship before getting voting materials.
“I need to prove a citizenship that would have raised the red flag for me and would have caused me to question it," Leemans said.
Democratic State Senator, Priya Sundareshan of Tucson, believes a situation like Leemans' is very rare. She said this is because of who is impacted by the data glitch.
“Mr. Leemans example is likely very rare, especially given that the group of voters affected by this glitch have been in Arizona since the 90s, driving with driver's licenses since the 90s," Sen. Sundareshan said.
Sundareshan sees implementing automatic registration as a potential way to avoid this type of glitch from occurring in the future.
“The process of obtaining a driver's license includes proof of citizenship. So, you know, that being in Arizona state law, I think there shouldn't be an additional hurdle to affirmatively having to register to vote," Sen. Sundareshan said.
Thursday, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes' Office said they are taking the following actions to determine the citizenship status of the voters affected by the data glitch:
- Contacting Congressman Greg Stanton’s office and several federal agencies to obtain expedited access to federal databases for the purpose of verifying the citizenship of possibly affected voters
- Sending all SAVE database records to every County Recorder in Arizona so they can begin conducting citizenship verification.
- Engaging the Arizona Department of Health Services to provide copies of birth certificates for all possibly affected voters who were born in Arizona so their records reflect proper DPOC.
- Identifying and engaging with various Arizona agencies who may be of assistance in connection with verifying the citizenship of possibly affected voters.
“Non-citizens voting, they would face some pretty steep consequences, and I think that deters a lot of people and puts pause. So I don't think we need to worry about a large number of non citizens voting as a result of this issue," Sen. Sundareshan said.