Donald Trump is beside himself. This is the worst time this news could have come about.
And a swing state has announced an election investigation just weeks before Trump’s inauguration.
Arizona officials are addressing a persistent issue that has allowed thousands of residents to vote over the years, despite lacking proof of citizenship when they initially registered. This problem, which has been known to state officials for years, came to light only recently, sparking renewed scrutiny and action just weeks before the 2024 election.
As far back as seven years before this matter became public, officials had identified the situation as a “problem,” according to attorneys working for Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes. Their findings, reported by the Washington Post, reveal a troubling history of overlooked concerns about voter registration accuracy.
Under Arizona law, proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, is required to vote in state and local elections. However, county and state officials have discovered that many voters who never provided such documentation have been casting ballots for decades.
State records show that both Republican and Democratic administrations in Arizona failed to understand why some noncitizens were marked as eligible to vote in the state’s motor vehicle database. This confusion stems from Arizona’s voter registration process, which is tied to the issuance of driver’s licenses.
Driver’s licenses issued after 1996 are considered a valid proof of citizenship. However, a system error classified residents with pre-1996 licenses — which do not meet the proof of citizenship requirement — as being allowed to vote in state and local races, according to reports from the Associated Press.
Arizona has long grappled with efforts to enforce its proof-of-citizenship voting laws. In 2004, voters passed a measure requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration. But nearly a decade of legal battles culminated in a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that prohibited Arizona from enforcing this requirement for federal elections.
To comply with the ruling, Arizona implemented a dual-registration system. Voters who provide proof of citizenship receive full ballots for local, state, and federal races, while those who don’t receive ballots limited to federal races.
Despite this system, errors persisted. A small number of voters were mistakenly recorded as having provided proof of citizenship when registering through the Motor Vehicle Division (MVD). These misclassifications occurred when individuals obtained, renewed, or updated their driver’s licenses, as well as during voter registration.
Fontes’ review of the issue revealed that officials first became aware of these errors in 2017, during the tenure of then-Governor Doug Ducey and Secretary of State Michele Reagan, both Republicans. At the time, staff noted the absence of records explaining why certain voters were categorized as citizens.
“I wish I could be of more help, but today we do not make it a practice to ask certain people for proof of citizenship if they have already had a license for 20+ years,” an MVD employee wrote in response to concerns.
A staffer in Reagan’s office acknowledged the problem, describing it as an issue that required further discussion. Another staffer expressed hope that such cases would remain rare.
The error is estimated to have affected approximately 218,000 people. Fontes’ office is now collaborating with county election officials to create a website where impacted voters can update their records electronically before the next municipal elections in early 2025.
This is not the first time the issue has caused complications. In 2020, an employee of then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs — now Arizona’s governor — flagged a case in which a noncitizen had been mailed the wrong ballot. The incident was brought to light when a man informed Hobbs’ administration that his mother-in-law, who was not a U.S. citizen, had received a mail-in ballot. Hobbs’ staff alerted the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, which was then led by Fontes.
“We’ll reach out to the son-in-law and get this resolved,” a county recorder employee responded at the time.
Fontes told the Washington Post that he does not remember the issue being raised during his time as county recorder. He also criticized his predecessors for failing to adequately address systemic problems with record-keeping.
“This doesn’t just pertain to voter registration,” Fontes stated. “It pertains to any educational benefits, any health care benefits. Every state benefit that relies on residency or citizenship is reliant on MVD data – this is an MVD issue. I can’t tell you how many state agencies use motor vehicle division databases and records and rely on the accuracy of those records, which we know we can’t completely rely on at this time.”
As Arizona works to resolve this longstanding issue, officials hope to bolster public confidence in the state’s voter registration and election systems.
Stay tuned to The Federalist Wire.
