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Arizona’s Democrat elections chief announced on Monday that the state has found 120,000 additional registered voters lacking documentary proof of citizenship (DPOC), bringing the estimated total of such voters to 218,000.
“Today, the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office released additional information about a new set of approximately 120,000 Arizonans who may be affected by a data coding oversight within [Arizona Department of Transporation’s] Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) and Arizona voter registration databases — individuals who have lived in the state for decades and have attested under penalty of perjury that they are U.S. citizens,” the office of Democrat Secretary of State Adrian Fontes revealed in a press release.
As my colleague Brianna Lyman previously reported, the issue originally came to light last month when state officials revealed they “found approximately 97,000 voters who are currently listed as full-ballot voters despite having not fulfilled the requirement to provide documentary proof of citizenship to vote in statewide elections.” The error appears to have resulted “from the way the Motor Vehicle Division provides driver’s license information to the state’s voter registration system,” according to left-wing Votebeat Arizona.
Fontes said most of the affected voters are registered Republicans, according to the outlet.
In Arizona, voters registering via state registration form must show documentary proof of citizenship (DPOC) to vote in state and local races. Individuals who are unable to provide such documentation are registered as “federal-only” voters and can only cast ballots in federal races.
Monday’s announcement revealed that of the newly discovered 120,000 registered voters lacking DPOC, approximately 79,000 are Republicans, 61,000 are Democrats, and 76,000 are Other Party. Collaboration between Fontes’ office and Arizona’s MVD “to investigate if additional voters are impacted, or if other similar errors stemming from” the error remain ongoing, according to the press release.
“Election officials will contact the affected Arizonans with information regarding their status after the conclusion of this General Election if necessary,” the presser reads. Fontes’ office argued that the newly unearthed 120,000 affected voters are authorized to vote full-ballot this November due to a decision issued by the Arizona Supreme Court last week.
In response to the initial discovery of nearly 100,000 voters lacking DPOC, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer filed a lawsuit arguing these voters should be designated as “federal-only” voters until they provide DPOC. Fontes and the Arizona GOP argued the opposite — that these voters should be granted full-ballot status for the general election since they are not at fault for the government’s error.
Arizona’s high court sided with Fontes and the Arizona GOP, ruling that Richer failed to establish that “the county recorders have statutory authority to remove the Affected Voters from being able to vote in the upcoming 2024 General Election for federal offices and with respect to matters on an Arizona ballot.”
“[W]e are unwilling on these facts to disenfranchise voters en masse from participating in state contests,” Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer wrote. “Doing so is not authorized by state law and would violate principles of due process.”
Responding to Monday’s developments, Arizona Republican Party Chair Gina Swoboda claimed in a statement that the “public, impacted stakeholders, and the Arizona Supreme Court were misled as to the extent of the issue and its effect on Arizona’s voter registration records.” She also argued Fontes “has repeatedly demonstrated a complete inability to execute the core functions of his position.”
“Secretary Fontes’ desire for a top-down system continues to shut out our county recorders who are the ONLY officials empowered by Arizona statute to process voter registration record changes,” Swoboda said. “This is a sad day for transparency.”
The AZ GOP chair further called on Fontes to instantly “make public” the data query “used to determine the voter records impacted by this error” and authorize his office to “deliver the list of impacted voters to all 15 county recorders.”
The office of Secretary Adrian Fontes did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment.
For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
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