Nearly 100k Arizonans could be ineligible to vote in upcoming state and local elections due to registration quirk

Almost 100,000 residents in Arizona may be ineligible to vote in upcoming elections, due to a flaw in the state’s voter registration system which was discovered just weeks before early ballots begin.

A state law that went into effect in 2004 requires Arizona voters to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote in state and local elections.

Arizona’s voter registration system pulls information from the state’s driver’s license database as a method of proving citizenship, though officials in Maricopa County recently found the system had incorrectly shown people had provided proof of citizenship when they applied for a driver’s license.

The issue affects some 98,000 people, who got a driver’s license before October 1, 1996 – the day Arizona started requiring proof of legal presence in the US to get one.

However, though voters must provide proof of citizenship to register to vote in state and local elections, they can still register to vote for federal offices such as the presidency and the US Senate using a federal-only form.

According to NPR, the glitch was discovered by the office of Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, which oversees voting and voter registration, while verifying the citizenship of a person with a pre-1996 license.

The office found that the person was a lawful permanent resident but not a citizen eligible to vote.

This led election officials in Arizona to discover tens of thousands of voters in every county in the state that had not provided the documentation required to vote a full ballot under Arizona law.

Richer has now filed an emergency petition filed with the Arizona Supreme Court, which argues that the 98,000 voters should be allowed to vote in federal elections unless they provide proof