The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday that about 98,000 people whose U.S. citizenship has not been confirmed will be allowed to vote in upcoming state and local elections.
The ruling came after a “coding oversight” in the state's software led the battleground state's Democratic secretary of state, Adrian Fontes, to argue that ballots would be sent to people affected anyway.
The database error has called into question the citizenship status of 100,000 Arizona voters, affecting individuals who obtained a driver's license before October 1996 and then received a duplicate license before registering to vote in 2004 or later.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is in Washington, DC, attending a House Administration Committee hearing. (Bonnie Cash/Getty Images)
Fontes and Maricopa County Recorder Steven Richer, a Republican, disagreed about what status voters should have after receiving “code surveillance.”
“To our knowledge, this wasn't discovered because anyone voted illegally or anyone was trying to vote illegally,” Fontes said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon. “This is basic voter roll management, and it showed us that this problem exists.”
Voters fill out their ballot during early voting. (Reuters/Nick Oxford)
Richer filed a special lawsuit Tuesday in state Supreme Court seeking resolution to the matter.
“It is my position that these registrants do not meet the requirements of Arizona's proof of citizenship law and therefore may only vote on a 'FED ONLY' ballot,” Richer wrote to X.
FILE – A woman walks up to vote after marking her ballot in a privacy-enhanced voting booth during the Nov. 2, 2021, gubernatorial election in Newark, New Jersey. (Reuters/Eduardo Munoz)
The error came as Arizona Republicans and conservative watchdog groups are pushing tougher voting measures that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to participate in state and state legislative elections. Federal elections. Arizona is also a battleground state won by the Democrats in the 2020 presidential election.
Fox News Digital's Jamie Joseph and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
