Arizona Supreme Court rules that 98,000 people whose citizenship is not confirmed can vote in crucial elections

Almost 98,000 people whose US citizenship has not been confirmed will be allowed to vote in the upcoming state and local elections. This was decided by the Supreme Court of the State of Arizona on Friday.

The ruling came after a “coding error” in the state's software prompted the swing state's Democratic Secretary of State, Adrian Fontes, to insist he would still send ballots to those affected.

The database error called into question the citizenship status of 100,000 registered voters in Arizona, including people who obtained their driver's licenses before October 1996 and then obtained duplicates before registering to vote after 2004.

Fontes and Stephen Richer, the Republican county clerk of Maricopa County, disagreed on what status voters should have after the “coding oversight.”

Arizona's proof of citizenship law goes back to court amid fears about noncitizen voting

“As far as we know, this was not discovered because someone voted illegally, nor was it discovered because someone attempted to vote illegally,” Fontes said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon. “And it was a basic maintenance of the voter list, and it showed us that this problem exists.”

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Richer filed a special lawsuit on Tuesday, asking the state Supreme Court to resolve the issue.

“In my view, these registrants do not meet the requirements of Arizona's citizenship law and therefore can only vote using a 'FED ONLY' ballot,” Richer wrote on X.

SCOTUS gives the Republican Party a partial victory in its attempt to impose proof of citizenship for voting in Arizona

Arizona's Citizenship Verification Law is the only law that requires voters to prove their citizenship in order to participate in local and state elections.

The error comes as Arizona Republicans and a conservative watchdog group are calling for stricter voting measures that require proof of U.S. citizenship to vote in state and local elections. Federal elections. Arizona is also a swing state that switched to the Democrats in the 2020 presidential election.

Jamie Joseph of Fox News Digital and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source of the original article: Arizona Supreme Court rules that 98,000 people whose citizenship is not confirmed can vote in crucial elections