What Arizona voters need to know about the 2024 election
Arizona voters will play a key role in deciding the next president of the U.S. Here’s everything to know about the upcoming November election.
The Republic
Arizona officials scrambled on Sept. 18 to find solutions for nearly 100,000 battleground state voters stuck in limbo following a citizenship tracking error.
The issue, caused by a coding glitch in the state’s motor vehicle database, was discovered by local election officials earlier this month. They found that some registered, full-ballot voters may not have provided citizenship documents in accordance with state law and were miscategorized on the voter rolls.
News of the issue broke on Sept. 17, igniting concern from voters across the state. Since then, officials have pitched the matter to the state’s top court and begun to contemplate what the next steps might look like for impacted Arizonans, tapping numerous government agencies to see if they could whittle down the list of voters caught in the coding error by performing additional citizenship checks.
JP Martin, a spokesperson for the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office, said officials hoped to “leverage federal tools” to verify the citizenship of affected voters. He confirmed Secretary of State Adrian Fontes had been in touch with Rep. Greg Stanton, who wrote to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about the issue on Wednesday.
“This will ensure that no Arizonan is unjustly denied the right to vote in state and local elections as we prepare for a final ruling,” Martin said.
Stanton’s letter urged the agency to assist election officials in confirming voters’ citizenship status, citing The Arizona Republic’s reporting. Spokesperson Allison Childress said the matter had been referred to officials with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to “see what is possible.”
Childress said Stanton had also contacted the State Department to look into “the viability of using passport information to verify citizenship.”
As federal leaders continued to evaluate options, officials filed new documents in a legal case that aimed to get quick clarity on how election officials should handle voters impacted by the coding error.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer filed the lawsuit on Sept. 17, requesting that impacted voters be marked as being limited to voting in federal races for this election. That would allow them to participate in the presidential race and congressional matchups but bar them from casting ballots in state and local contests.
“It is a fundamental principle of United States democracy that only those individuals who are qualified to vote may vote for our elected political leaders,” the suit reads, later noting that state law requires registrants to submit documentary proof of citizenship to participate in state and local races.
Fontes, who was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, said during a news conference that it was a “friendly” one. He responded with his own proposal to the Arizona Supreme Court, arguing that impacted voters should remain eligible to cast a full ballot in November. He called the coding issue an “unintentional error” that shouldn’t “disenfranchise” voters.
“To deprive voters of the franchise, when there is no actual proof they should be so deprived, is undemocratic, unconstitutional, and must be avoided at all costs,” his response to the suit read.
He also found unlikely allies among some of the state’s top Republicans. The Arizona GOP and conservative legislative leaders filed documents requesting the court allow impacted voters — most of whom are Republicans — to cast a full ballot.
Those same officials have long pushed for stricter proof of citizenship requirements and made unfounded claims about noncitizens voting in U.S. elections. But Gina Swoboda, chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party, appeared concerned about the impact the issue might have on down-ballot races for the party.
“The only question before us is if these voters, who have possessed an Arizona driver’s license since before October 1996, should be denied the right to vote for their representatives in the Arizona Legislature, county, school board, and ballot measure contests,” she said in a statement.
What’s next?
Election officials statewide are currently preparing to send mail-in ballots to voters.
Early voting officially opens in early October, just weeks away. Officials send ballots to overseas and military voters even earlier to adjust for the speed of global mail.
Richer’s suit contends that “immediate clarity” is needed to ensure consistency across the state’s various counties. He and Fontes have urged the court to make a decision quickly because election officials across the state need to know whether to send impacted overseas voters a full ballot or a limited one.
In the meantime, there’s no way to delay the mailing process. Maricopa County began sending its ballots internationally on Sept. 18. Taylor Kinnerup, a spokesperson for the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, said staff would continue sending batches of early ballots to overseas voters through Sept. 21.
“Everything is business as normal until the courts make a decision,” she said.
Am I among the voters impacted by this issue?
Officials say there’s currently no way to determine if you are among the group of voters caught in the coding error, but have pledged to reach out to impacted voters as soon as possible with the next steps.
“We are not going to start contacting voters willy-nilly until we receive guidance from the court,” Fontes said Tuesday afternoon. “Just hang tight. We will be sure to get this resolved.”
Arizona voters can check their registration status at any time via the state’s election information portal, but that won’t reflect whether you are impacted by this issue.
Visit Arizona.Vote and click the blue box that reads, “Your Voter Info.” It will take you to the Arizona Voter Information Portal, where you can verify your registration status.
Sasha Hupka covers county government and election administration for The Arizona Republic. Reach her at sasha.hupka@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X: @SashaHupka. Follow her on Instagram or Threads: @sashahupkasnaps. Sign up for her weekly election newsletter, Republic Recount.
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Publish date : 2024-09-19 02:02:00
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