AZ Secretary of State Update on Solving Voter Data Citizenship Issues

PHOENIX - The Arizona Department of State continues to work with the Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) to review data to ensure the integrity of Arizona’s voter registration system and confirm that documented proof of citizenship (DPOC) information is shared between State and County data systems in a way sufficient to verify what is required by state voter registration law. 

The recent addition of approximately 118,000 people to the list of impacted registrants (originally thought to be approximately 98,000) was a result of including renewed and reinstated licenses in the MVD data pull of registrants that state officials now know may not have shown documentation sufficient to meet voter registration requirements. State officials advised media representatives after the first numbers were released that continued analysis could result in revised data. State officials are researching internal and external sources to determine if DPOC has been obtained to help narrow down the list of impacted registrants.

“We need to keep in mind that this situation happened through no fault of the impacted individual registrants,” said Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes. “All of the Arizonans affected by this issue remain eligible voters and are long-time Arizona residents. All have attested under penalty of perjury – the same standard the rest of the country uses – that they are U.S. citizens. Had it not been for the unique burden created by the implementation of Arizona’s Prop 200 in 2004, this issue wouldn’t even exist.” 

Fontes reiterated that the registrants affected would be eligible for a full ballot in any other state in the country.  Arizona's bifurcated voter registration system means questions about the DPOC status of these registrants would not impact the Presidential or congressional elections as these voters would be eligible to vote in Federal elections regardless of their DPOC status.

Fortunately, the impacted individuals can cast a full ballot including state and local races this year, pursuant to the Arizona Supreme Court’s expeditious ruling last month. That ruling afforded the AZ SOS the time needed to investigate, provide accurate data on the issue, and craft a permanent solution rather than rushing toward a half-baked fix. 

Since discovering the oversight in how information was transmitted between MVD and the AZ SOS, the AZ SOS has been working to identify how the issue occurred and if there are additional areas of concern. In addition the AZ SOS has: 

• Collected all available data from the MVD and, when able to do so, notified all election officials and the public of the situation;
• Contacted several federal agencies to try to obtain expedited access to federal databases for the purpose of verifying the citizenship of potentially impacted voters;
• UPDATED: Sent every County Recorder in Arizona voter records from the initial MVD group with information that would enable SAVE database verification so the County Recorders can begin conducting citizenship verification,>
• Engaged the Arizona Department of Health Services to provide copies of birth certificates for all possibly affected voters who were born in Arizona so their records reflect proper DPOC;
• Identified, and has begun engaging with, various Arizona agencies who may be of assistance in connection with verifying the citizenship of possibly impacted voters;
• Began conducting a review of the original Arizona Voter Information Database (AVID) development requirements to make sure the data that the AZ SOS is getting from MVD can be used by the voter registration system to effectively verify DPOC for registrants; and
• Commissioned a comprehensive internal investigation into the situation, including a search of AZ SOS Office records to ascertain the extent to which the issue was known and for how long, what steps were or were not taken to correct the problem, and how the Office, moving forward, can help assure that something like this never happens again. 

With time now to fully examine the issue, the AZ SOS will soon be able to accurately communicate with affected voters and provide clear next steps to resolve any issues pertaining to DPOC needs, but this will not happen prior to the 2024 General Election. Moreover, burdening elections officials and their staff, county recorders, and voters themselves with an urgently arranged solution could create other issues. As such, the AZ SOS will continue to provide regular communication to all relevant parties, including the public, over the coming days and months in order to finally bring all our systems in compliance with the law.