Arizona could bar thousands from voting in state elections for missing key citizenship papers

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer on Tuesday said he plans to file a lawsuit with the Arizona Supreme Court that would prohibit tens of thousands of residents from voting in state and local elections if they failed to produce their proper citizenship papers.

Arizona law requires voters to file documents that prove their citizenship in order to vote in state and local elections, but not in federal ones, NBC News reported. Residents are required to prove their citizenship in the United States when obtaining an Arizona driver's license.

Richer said on Tuesday that a review of how state officials and systems verify citizenship through the driver's license registration records discovered a "flaw" in the system that resulted in 97,000 residents securing licenses without proving their citizenship. 

“All of these people have attested under penalty of law that they are U.S. citizens.  And, in all likelihood, they [are] almost all U.S. Citizens,” Richer wrote in a post on X. “But they have NOT provided documented proof of citizenship.”

Richer said that he and Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes have disagreed over whether the residents should be barred from the November election, if it is confirmed that they failed to prove their citizenship. Fontes believes that it is too late to do anything about November.

Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs' has admitted the error in a press release on Tuesday, but said a correction is in progress.

Regardless of the lawsuit's outcome, all legal state residents will be allowed to cast a ballot for the presidential and Congressional races in Arizona.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.