The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that some 98,000 Arizonans whose citizenship documents are not on file can vote in state and local races as well as federal races this November.
The court said that Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and all other Arizona county recorders have no authority to change the voter registration status of those who are not citizens to federal-only ballots.
An error in a database had allowed noncitizen voters to vote the full ballot for over 20 years after a 2004 Arizona law required residents to provide documentary proof of citizenship in order to vote the full ballot. Those who don’t have citizenship documents on file can only vote in the federal races, according to the Arizona law.
Confusion arose due to how duplicate driver’s licenses are issued and how some drivers, with licenses issued before Oct. 1, 1996, may not have citizenship records.
“This was discovered not because somebody was voting illegally and not because somebody was attempting to vote illegally, as far as we can tell,” Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, said earlier this week. “And this was basic voter roll maintenance, and it showed us that there is this issue.”
“It is my position that these registrants have not satisfied Arizona’s documented proof of citizenship law, and therefore can only vote a ‘FED ONLY’ ballot,” Richer wrote on X, disagreeing with Fontes.
Arizona Supreme Court Justice Ann Scott Timmer explained the court’s ruling: “Fontes and Richer acknowledge that ‘[i]t is possible that Affected Voters have, in fact, provided satisfactory evidence of DPOC [documented proof of citizenship].’”
“This Court has also accepted original special action jurisdiction over election matters in which there is a need for immediate relief based on rapidly approaching election deadlines and where the key facts are not in dispute,” Timmer wrote.
“We are unwilling on these facts to disenfranchise voters en masse from participating in state contests,” Timmer wrote. “Doing so is not authorized by state law and would violate principles of due process.”
Fontes wrote on X, “We won. No voters on “the list” will be made Fed-Only.”
The swing state of Arizona could play a critical role in the presidential race this November, and the additional 98,000 voters may influence the outcome.
In 2020, President Joe Biden became the first Democrat to win Arizona since Bill Clinton did in 1996, and only the second Democrat to win since Harry S. Truman was elected in 1948. Biden was first Democrat to win Maricopa County since Truman. Biden won the state with 10,457 more votes than Trump in 2020. The state has 11 electoral votes.
Also this week, an Arizona judge ruled that even though a petition does not have the required signatures to put a voter initiative on the ballot, it can still be on the ballot for November. That story is below:
The law has become a joke.
It’s real simple show up to vote in person and have proof of your citizenship. If voting means that much to do then you will find a way just like if a million dollars was there for you.
The role of Democrats is always to influence the outcome of an election, whether illegally or immorally. AZ is turning blue, primarily because lefties from CA have been moving into the Phoenix area for the past decade to escape high CA taxes. Unfortunately, these Californicators bring their Marxist ideology with them and vote for Marxists in AZ.
Yes ,Californicators are alive & well in our Great State !!! How many exist in our Legislature? We need a survey of who is who down in Juneau. Liberty Ed
There is a law on the books requiring that residents provide documentary proof of citizenship in order to vote the full ballot and yet somehow Arizona Supreme Court Justice Ann Scott Timmer manages to ignore the fact that the law has been on the books for more than two decades and says that there is either no law or that to follow that law “is not authorized by state law and would violate principles of due process.”
No voter fraud at all and because they don’t want to “disenfranchise (98,000 illegal) voters en masse from participating in state contests,” they disenfranchise all legal voters en masse.
But isn’t this a federal, Congressional authority and the judiciary has zero authority to opine or execute since personal and subject matter is “Congressional”; or to opine when federal Congress law controls. The real Estate Agent never becomes the principal for instance.
Well, i am convinced. The upcoming election will not be stolen at all.
Somehow people don’t do their homework on history and this is the result of an idiot in charge…. go back look into the history find it use it against them while embarrassing the know it alls … by terms of the monkey’s smelly gas generator (notice i didn’t say monkeys butt)
So the Republicans in Alaska are against RCV. The Dems in Colorado are against RCV. Obviously, the party that has the most to lose is against RCV. Interesting, do away with RCV because your message doesn’t connect with the voters. Sad day in America.