Arizona Court Allows 98,000 to Vote in State and Local Races Despite Database Glitch

Arizona’s Supreme Court ruled on Friday that nearly 100,000 residents whom officials could not verify were U.S. citizens because of an administrative glitch would remain eligible to vote in state and local elections in November.

Their voting status had been thrust into limbo this month when officials in Arizona, a battleground state with about 4.1 million voters, discovered a problem with their data.

The problem appeared to affect voters who were issued driver’s licenses before 1996, eight years before Arizona enacted a law in 2004 that required voters to provide proof of citizenship to be able to participate in state elections.

If those license holders never voted or updated their registration information, their proof of citizenship might not be on file, limiting their participation to federal elections only.

In a nine-page decision, Ann A. Scott Timmer, the court’s chief justice, wrote that it was “possible” that the affected voters had, in fact, provided satisfactory evidence that they were U.S. citizens.

“We are unwilling on these facts to disenfranchise voters en masse from participating in state contests,” Chief Justice Timmer wrote. “Doing so is not authorized by state law and would violate principles of due process.”

The court issued its ruling after Adrian Fontes, the Democratic secretary of state, directed counties to grant full eligibility to the affected voters and after Stephen Richer, a Republican who is the county recorder of Maricopa County, filed an emergency petition asking the state’s top court to clarify the status of the voters.

An analysis by the secretary of state’s office found that the glitch threatened to affect roughly 98,000 voters, including more Republicans than Democrats.

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