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An estimated 218,000 Arizona residents haven’t provided proof of citizenship but will still be allowed to vote anyway.

Because of a glitch in Arizona’s election system, 218,000 residents were allowed to register to vote without proving their citizenship status.

The citizenship status requirement exists because of a law passed in 2004. However, nine years later the Supreme Court intervened and said the law may only apply to local and state races but not to federal races.

“As a result, the state gives ballots that include all races to those who submit proof of citizenship and ballots with only federal races on them to those who do not,” the Washington Post notes.

Here’s where problems arise: Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, argued that the residents “appeared” to be citizens and thus deserved to receive a full ballot. Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer in turn staunchly disagreed and asked the Arizona Supreme Court to intervene. The high court ultimately agreed with Fontes.

“It said county officials lack the authority to change the voters’ statuses because those voters registered long ago and had attested under the penalty of law that they are citizens,” CBS News notes. “The justices also said the voters were not at fault for the database error and also mentioned the little time that’s left before the Nov. 5 general election.”

This means the 218,000 potential non-citizens will be allowed to vote in all races.

But there is some good news.

“Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes announced … [that] the problem affects more Republicans than Democrats or Independents,” according to the Post.

And so if the numbers are accurate, this means more Republican voters versus Democrat voters would have been ostensibly “disenfranchised” had the high court ruled the other way.

Plus, there is evidence to suggest the 218,000 are indeed citizens who’ve been in the state a really long time.

“They received their initial driver’s licenses before 1996, got a replacement license sometime after that date, and subsequently submitted a voter registration application, either because they moved or registered to vote for the first time,” the Post notes.

“When they received the replacement license, the state’s computer systems indicated to local elections officials that they had provided citizenship documents even though there is no record that they had. The flaw has existed since 2004, when the state began requiring proof of citizenship for voting,” according to the Post.

But on the other hand, there’s evidence that the state’s driver’s license system is also corrupted.

“An audit last year of the state transportation department found extensive problems with the state’s oversight of third-party vendors, according to the state auditor general report,” the Post notes.

“Problems included the issuance of driver’s licenses and identification cards to ‘unqualified or unauthorized’ people — and a lack of ‘documentation confirming individuals/entities were qualified and/or authorized’ to receive car titles or driver’s licenses and identification cards,” according to the Post.

Critics for their part still maintain that, though more Republicans than Democrats could be affected, the 218,000 residents shouldn’t be allowed to vote, period, or at least not until they prove their citizenship status.

Look:

Vivek Saxena
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