In a nine-page decision, Ann A. Scott Timmer, the court's chief justice, wrote that it was possible that the affected voters had, in fact, provided satisfactory evidence that they were U.S. citizens. We are unwilling on these facts to disenfranchise voters en masse from participating in state contests, Chief Justice Timmer wrote. Doing so is not authorized by state law and would violate principles of due process.
An analysis by the secretary of state's office found that the glitch threatened to affect roughly 98,000 voters, including more Republicans than Democrats. The court issued its ruling after Adrian Fontes, the Democratic secretary of state, directed counties to grant full eligibility to the affected voters and after Stephen Richer, a Republican who is the county recorder of Maricopa County, filed an emergency petition asking the state's top court to clarify the status of the voters.
#voting-rights #arizona-supreme-court #election-integrity #citizenship-verification #administrative-errors
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