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Arizona Supreme Court rules voters faced with citizenship proof error can still get ‘full ballot,’ including state elections
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Arizona Supreme Court rules voters faced with citizenship proof error can still get ‘full ballot,’ including state elections



CNN

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday that nearly 100,000 residents who may not meet the state’s requirements for proving their citizenship will be allowed to vote in state and local elections this year, quickly ending election officials’ efforts to address a clerical error that cast doubt on the eligibility of registered voters in the crucial state.

The court was asked to decide whether these electors would receive a “federal” ballot or the “full ballot,” which would include state and local races. Regardless of the outcome, these electors would have been able to cast their votes for president.

Arizona uses these separate ballots because the state requires all voters to prove their citizenship before they can vote in state and local races. Such documentation is not required to vote for federal office in Arizona.

The decision to allow these approximately 98,000 voters to use the full ballot is a victory for Arizona’s Democratic Secretary of State, Adrian Fontes, and the liberal groups that pushed for the outcome.

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled just three days after the lawsuit was filed. Election officials hoped a quick resolution of the issue would ease confusion heading into the voting season.

In addition to state and local elections, the ruling could also have implications for Arizona’s abortion rights referendum this fall.

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican, filed a lawsuit against Fontes on Tuesday, arguing that the nearly 98,000 voters should receive the federal ballot. But Richer had said his biggest priority was to get quick clarity from the courts.

“Thank God,” Richer posted on social media in response to Friday’s ruling. “Thank you, Arizona Supreme Court, for your extremely swift and professional review of this case.”

In a show of bipartisanship, Richer and Fontes thanked each other for working together to address the unexpected issue ahead of the election. Fontes said election officials would work to fix the administrative error after the election, including outreach to affected voters to ask them to update their citizenship information.

“Today is a significant victory for those whose fundamental right to vote has been under scrutiny,” Fontes said. “The court faced a stark choice: allow voters to participate in just a few federal races on a limited ballot, or let their voices be heard in hundreds of decisions on a full ballot covering a variety of local and state offices. We are deeply grateful to the Arizona Supreme Court for its swift and just resolution.”

Arizona officials previously said an error misclassified nearly 98,000 people on the state’s voter rolls as having provided proof of citizenship, even though there is no evidence that happened. Those voters had their driver’s licenses before 1996, the year Arizona began requiring residents to prove their citizenship to get a driver’s license.

Former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have made baseless claims that large numbers of non-citizens voted in U.S. elections, and Trump has used the case to continue his years-long pattern of routine missteps and errors in the voting process to allege widespread fraud. Nonpartisan experts say illegal voting by non-citizens is extremely rare and quickly detected.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

CNN’s Tierney Sneed and Kaanita Iyer contributed to this report.