PHOENIX – 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 ADOT’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. This data set includes approximately 79,000 Republicans, 61,000 Democrats, and 76,000 Other Party (OTH), bringing the total of impacted individuals to approximately 218,000.
In spite of the evolving situation, the Supreme Court’s underlying September 20th decision about this issue stands. As with the initial group of Arizonans, certain individuals were mistakenly marked as having provided documentary proof of citizenship (DPOC) pursuant to Arizona’s Proposition 200 requiring DPOC to vote in state and local elections.
All agencies continue to work together in real time to resolve this matter. The Arizona voter registration database now has the correctly flagged the impacted individuals as needing proof of citizenship.
Election officials will contact the affected Arizonans with information regarding their status after the conclusion of this General Election if necessary. In the meantime, all individuals included in the database error remain eligible to vote a full ballot. This will give election officials the opportunity to verify that everyone affected truly is required to provide documentary proof of citizenship.
“Let’s be clear, Prop 200 is an extreme law that attempts to solve a problem that is vanishingly rare,” said Secretary Fontes. “The reality is these registrants have met the same legal standard as every other American who registers to vote: swearing under penalty of perjury that they are U.S. citizens. We can’t risk denying actual citizens the right to vote due to an error out of their control. This issue is another example of why we need to fund elections, update systems and staff, and carry forward our proven tradition of safe, fair and secure elections.”
Similar to the initial announcement, the newly discovered issue pertains to misclassification of voters with a driver’s license issued before 1996. Arizona requires residents to provide DPOC to vote in state and local elections. In data shared with the secretary of state’s office, MVD has been classifying these individuals with older credentials, from whom MVD never collected proof of authorized presence due to their original credential issue date, as having provided DPOC.
Staff and experts from the Secretary of State’s Office are continuing to work with MVD to investigate if additional voters are impacted, or if other similar errors stemming from improperly coded Proposition 200 rules exist. We will continue to keep the public informed of developments if and when we have accurate, confirmed information to share.
