Arizona Supreme Court Rules That 98,000 Ineligible Voters Can Vote In 2024 Election

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Arizona was one of many states alleged to have been rife with voter fraud following the 2020 Presidential Election. Along with Nevada, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, Arizona issued objections to the electoral votes won by President Joe Biden, ultimately to no avail. While states like Georgia and others who issued objections to the outcome of the 2020 election results took swift action to rectify issues with their electoral systems in the years that followed, Arizona's lack of similar efforts has left the state plagued with the same problems it faced in 2020. The Arizona Supreme Court's ruling that nearly 98,000 voters wrongly classified by a database "error" will be eligible to vote in elections despite their absence of proof of citizenship highlights the consequences of the state's failure to correct those systemic failures and the continued threat they pose to the integrity of the outcome of the 2024 Presidential Election.

On Tuesday, which ironically was voter registration day in the state, officials in Arizona brought the revelation of the error in state-run databases to the public's attention just 4 days before county election officials are required to mail ballots to overseas voters, among others. They warned that approximately 98,000 registered voters had wrongly been classified as having proof of citizenship, which would allow them to vote in state, local, and federal elections. Currently, Arizona law prohibits voters without proof of citizenship from voting in state and local elections. Following a United States Supreme Court decision in August, voters in Arizona do not have to provide documentary proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. Instead, they simply must attest that they are citizens under penalty of perjury when filling out a federal voter registration form distinct from those used to register to vote in state and local elections.

In the wake of the announcement, Arizona's Secretary Of State Adrian Fontes tried to assuage resident's concerns by declaring that the error itself had been corrected. However, the issue of whether those erroneously classified voters would be able to vote in the full scope of Arizona's elections from the local to federal level remained unresolved. Fontes, a Democrat, was at odds with Stephen Richer, the Republican recorder for Maricopa County, as to whether or not the voters affected by the database error should be afforded the right to vote on a full ballot.

Richer filed a special action with the Arizona Supreme Court asserting that those 98,000 or so voters should only be allowed to vote in the federal elections in 2024, pursuant to state law. “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,” he stated. In his filing, Richer alleged that the Secretary Of State violated state law when he advised county election officials to allow the voters affected by the error to cast their votes on full ballots. In response to Richer's allegation, Secretary Fontes responded by asserting that precluding those voters from doing so raised constitutional issues on their rights to due process and equal protection under the law.

Ultimately, the Arizona Supreme Court rendered a decision rejecting Richer's special action on Friday, meaning that those voters were eligible to receive full ballots for the 2024 election despite not having provided proof of citizenship. The court made the decision on the basis that county officials did not have authority to change the status of voters. While the 98,000 voters had not provided proof of citizenship to vote in state and local elections, they had sworn under penalty of law that they were citizens in order to vote in federal elections. As such, state election officials did not have the jurisdiction to make a determination on the veracity of that attestation.

The court also cited the proximity of the upcoming election and the fact that the error was not the fault of the voters as reason to reject Richer's request to prohibit them from access to full ballots. Those concerns weighed heavily on the court as it did not want its decision to have a detrimental impact on voter turnout statewide. “We are unwilling on these facts to disenfranchise voters en masse from participating in state contests,” Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer stated in the court's ruling.

While the absolution of the state for its database error does not directly affect voter eligibility for the 2024 Presidential Election, a litany of state issues being voted on November will have reverberations on the state's future that will ultimately be of consequence to the national political landscape. State referendums on a constitutional right to abortion and whether allow state and local law enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants entering the country through Arizona's border with Mexico will appear on the ballot that is now available to the additional 98,000 or so voters in November. Their ability to vote on these referendums when they otherwise would be prohibited from doing so shifts the balance of those outcomes in the favor of the Democrat's positions on each issue.

In addition to the impact the court's decision will have on state and local elections and referendums, the ruling highlights the continued issues plaguing Arizona's electoral process. In stark juxtaposition to Arizona, Oklahoma removed nearly half of a million ineligible voters from its voter rolls earlier this week. According to a press release from the office of Republican Governor Kevin Stitt, the state removed 97,065 deceased voters, 143,682 who moved out of state, 5,607 with felony convictions, 14,993 duplicates, and 194,962 inactive voters. Stitt credited state law requiring the Oklahoma State Election Board to regularly review the eligibility of voters every 2 years as part of a system of requirements that has protected the security of Oklahoma's elections. Conversely, the absence of a similar system of checks and balances that allowed the widespread systematic error to wrongly classify voters in Arizona highlights the lack of initiative state officials have taken to ensure a similar standard of integrity.

With Arizona projected to be a battleground state in the 2024 Presidential Election, the latest revelation of failures in the state's electoral process looms large. Presently, former President Donald Trump is slightly favored to win Arizona. However, polls show he is the favorite by a slim margin hovering around 0.5% depending on which polls an average is taken of. In 2020, President Joe Biden won the state by a mere 10,457 votes, constituting a margin of victory of just 0.30%. Given the impact of the error allowing ineligible voters to vote in state and local elections in 2024, any similar errors that have yet to be exposed that could impact federal elections in Arizona are yet again posed to tilt the scales in favor of the Democratic establishment.