BREAKING: Maricopa County Recorder Files Action In AZ Supreme Court, Could Force 97,000 Long-Time Voters To Present Proof of Citizenship Or Lose Ballot Access

Update, 4:50pm: The Arizona Supreme Court is moving fast. The Secretary of State's Response is due by 4:00pm tomorrow. (Fontes already had declared that he is ready to file it by then.) Any amicus (aka friend of the court) briefs are also due by then, and the Justices will quickly decide whether to accept this emergency Special Action.

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Original article, 9/17: "BREAKING: Maricopa County Recorder Files Action In AZ Supreme Court, Could Force 97,000 Long-Time Voters To Present Proof of Citizenship Or Lose Ballot Access"

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer has filed an emergency action with the Arizona Supreme Court today, seeking guidance on what to do about 97,000 voters (statewide) who are impacted by a just-discovered glitch in the Motor Vehicle Department's system. 

The voters may have long been assumed to have presented documented proof of citizenship to MVD because they received a duplicate license, and the "issuance date" was updated. Therefore, County Recorders believed that MVD had verified citizenship status when it may not have.

Richer asks the Justices for guidance on whether or not he should switch those people - more than 50,000 in Maricopa County - from the full-ballot status they have had to only being able to vote a "federal-only" ballot (President, Senate, House of Representatives)... unless they immediately provide proof of citizenship.

Secretary of State Adrian Fontes notes that federal law prohibits counties from conducting voter list maintenance within 90 days of an election. This would definitely apply. He also notes today that most of those impacted are 45-60years old, and more are Republican than Democrat.

In 2004, Arizonans passed a proposition that required the proof of citizenship - instead of simply swearing under penalty of law that you are a citizen. The U.S. Supreme Court then ruled that such a requirement violated federal laws, and Arizona came up with a unique system that gave full ballot status to those who provided the proof, and "fed-only" status to those who used the federal voter registration form AND did not provide proof.

Because Arizona's Motor Vehicle Division has required proof of citizenship for most drivers - non-citizens have a separate class of driver's license which will (also) not permit voter registration - Arizonans filling out the federal form but writing their AZ DL number down are checked and given full ballot status.

The reset of the issuance date of the driver's license when someone gets a replacement license meant that County Recorders confirmed full-ballot statuts for 97,000 people who had not provided MVD with proof.

Soooo, this may apply to Arizonans who had their AZDL (or, ID) before 2004, BUT they registered to vote - or, re-registered after moving (from county to county - post-2004. AND, their DL had been updated and showed a post-1996 issuance date.

Richer is represented by Snell & Wilmer.

The Emergency Action attaches communications between the parties from yesterday and today. We also obtained those documents from the Secretary of State pursuant to a public records request. (Published below.)

This is only one of the moving pieces surrounding Arizona's unique bifurcated ballot statuses. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that Recorders REJECT new voter registration applications submitted on the state's application that do not include a (qualifying) AZDL or attached proof of citizenship, but to ACCEPT the same potential voter (with fed-only status) if they use the federal application.

Meanwhile, groups are hurriedly trying to assist "fed-only" voters to "cure" their status so that they can vote a full ballot. (I assisted several voters with that yesterday, in fact.)

Here is an explanatory news conference from Secretary of State Fontes:  

This article was reported by AZ Law founder Paul Weich. 

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