An “administrative issue” is being cited after nearly 100,000 Arizona voters received incorrect ballots, raising concerns about how long the error has gone unnoticed and why it was only identified now. ABC15 in Phoenix reported that the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office discovered that 97,000 local residents were affected, and there is a possibility that non-citizens may have been issued ballots. The key issue is whether many of these voters received full ballots instead of federal-only ballots. Stephen Richer, a local election official and Republican, announced on X that he would be suing Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes over the mistake.
“Later today, my office is suing the Secretary’s office regarding how to handle certain voters who need to provide documented proof of citizenship,” he wrote Wednesday morning. “Since 2004, Arizona has been the only state in the country to require that a voter provide documented proof of citizenship in order to vote a full ballot. For all other states, the registrant simply has to attest under penalty of law that he is a United States citizen. Since 1996, Arizona has also required that residents provide proof of citizenship in order to obtain most forms of drivers licenses.”
In 2004, Arizona established a barrier to prevent non-citizens from voting by directing the state’s Motor Vehicles Division (MVD) to scrutinize the majority of voter registrations processed through its office. Only U.S. citizens are eligible to obtain a driver’s license in Arizona. However, Richer pointed out that drivers who received their licenses before 1996 do not have their citizenship records maintained by the MVD, an oversight that he claims has remained unaddressed since 2004.
“My office discovered this issue last week, and we have been working with the Governor’s Office, the Secretary’s Office, the MVD, and the Attorney General to fix this moving forward,” Richer added. “The Secretary argues that it is too close to the election to implement such a change and that it would be unduly burdensome on voters and deprive them of their voting rights. That is why we are going to the courts. To get a clear answer.”
Later today, my office (@RecordersOffice) is suing the Secretary’s office (@AZSecretary) regarding how to handle certain voters who need to provide documented proof of citizenship.
Since 2004, Arizona has been the only state in the country to require that a voter provide…
— Stephen Richer—MaricopaCountyRecorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) September 17, 2024
Earlier this year, Richer made headlines after losing his Republican primary to a MAGA candidate who supported former President Donald Trump’s claim that he won Arizona four years ago. The closely contested Sunbelt state was narrowly won by Biden on election night in 2020. Richer agreed with the election results, resisting requests from Trump’s legal team to challenge ballots and initiate a statewide recount.
Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs addressed the controversy in a statement to the ABC affiliate. “After Recorder Richer brought an erroneous voter registration record to my attention, my team identified and fixed an administrative error that originated in 2004, and affects longtime residents who received a driver’s license 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. I’m proud of MVD for their hard work implementing a fix to this problem in record time,” she said.
According to Arizona Clean Elections, “A Federal Only Voter is a voter who registers to vote, but does not provide documentary proof of citizenship or proof of residency, and/or the county recorder is unable to ascertain citizenship status of the voter. Therefore, the federal-only voter may only vote in federal elections (President, U.S. Senator, and U.S. House of Representatives).”
A Full Ballot voter, meanwhile, has “provided documentary proof of citizenship and residency when registering to vote, or the county recorder ascertained proof of citizenship from the voter registration database or the Motor Vehicle Division. A full ballot includes federal elections, state elections and local elections.”
