Nearly 98,000 people whose U.S. citizenship has not been confirmed will be eligible to vote in upcoming state and local elections, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday.
The glitch came after a “coding error” in state software prompted the key state's Democratic Secretary of State, Adrian Fontes, to insist he would send ballots to those affected anyway.
The database error called into question the citizenship status of 100,000 registered Arizona voters, affecting people who obtained their driver's licenses before October 1996 and subsequently received duplicates before registering to vote after 2004.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes looks on during a House Administration Committee hearing in Washington, DC. (Bonnie Cash/Getty Images)
Fontes and Stephen Richer, the Republican registrar of Maricopa County, disagreed on what status voters should have after the “coding oversight.”
“This was discovered not because someone voted illegally or because someone tried to vote illegally, as far as we know,” Fontes said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon. “And it was basic maintenance of the voter roll, and it showed us that this problem exists.”
A voter fills out her ballot during early voting. (Reuters/Nick Oxford)
Richer filed a special action Tuesday asking the state Supreme Court to resolve the issue.
“In my opinion, these applicants have not met the documented proof of citizenship required by Arizona law and therefore can only vote on a 'FED ONLY' ballot,” Richer wrote in X.
FILE – A woman walks to cast her ballot after filling it out at a private booth while voting in the gubernatorial election in Newark, New Jersey, Nov. 2, 2021. (REUTERS/Eduardo Muñoz)
The gaffe comes as Arizona Republicans and a conservative watchdog group have been pushing for stricter voting measures requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to participate in state elections and federal elections. Arizona is also a key state that leaned toward the Blue Party in the 2020 presidential election.
Fox News Digital's Jamie Jospeh and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
