Number of Voters in Key Swing State Missing Citizenship Proof Doubles

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, said on Monday that the number of voters in Arizona classified as having full access to the ballot without confirmation they are citizens is now estimated to be 218,000 people.

That number is more than double what state election officials said last month when they announced there were 98,000 misclassified voters in Arizona.

The figure accounts for 5.3 percent of all registered voters. While this error won’t affect eligibility for presidential or congressional voting, it could significantly influence tight local and state races, as well as contentious ballot measures on issues like abortion and immigration.

Arizona, a key swing state in November’s presidential election, requires voters to prove citizenship to vote a full ballot. However, residents can still vote in federal races if they attest under penalty of perjury to being citizens.

It remains unclear how officials overlooked this additional bloc of voters, especially after announcing two weeks ago that an error between the state’s voter registration system and the Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) had been resolved.

Aaron Thacker, a spokesperson for Fontes’ office, said Tuesday that the fix implemented by the Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) failed to resolve the issue.

In an email to The Associated Press (AP), the Arizona Department of Transportation, which oversees the MVD, stated that it had created a coding update for its system, though it did not specify when the update was implemented.

In Arizona, a relatively small number of votes could shift the outcome in tightly contested legislative races, where Republicans hold a narrow majority in both chambers. This year, voters will also face significant ballot measures, including one on the constitutional right to abortion and another aimed at criminalizing illegal entry into the state from Mexico.

Last month, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the original group of voters would be allowed to cast full ballots in this year’s election. The decision was based on the fact that these voters had registered long ago and attested, under penalty of perjury, that they were U.S. citizens. The justices determined that the voters were not responsible for the registration error and should not be disenfranchised so close to the November 5 general election.

Fontes stated that the recent court ruling should also apply to the newly identified group of voters, who are nearly evenly split between Democrats, Republicans and those not affiliated with either party.

This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.