Arizona official sues to bar 100K from local voting

What occurred

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (R) requested the Arizona Supreme Court docket on Tuesday to ban almost 100,000 longtime residents from voting in state and native elections this 12 months, as a result of the state has no proof they submitted proof of citizenship as required below a 2004 state legislation. Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) argued these voters must be given full ballots, as they’ve for the previous 20 years.

Who stated what

“In all probability,” the estimated 97,000 registrants throughout Arizona who haven’t submitted proof of citizenship are “nearly all U.S. residents,” Richer (pictured above) stated on X. These voters all first obtained Arizona driver’s licenses earlier than 1996, and most of them “lean older and are Republicans,” The Arizona Republic stated. All of them “swore below the penalty of prison fees” that they had been residents and have been on voter rolls “for years.” 

Whereas this group is only a “small fragment” of Arizona’s 4.1 million registered voters, they “could possibly be decisive” in statewide races and poll initiatives, The Washington Put up stated. They’ll vote in federal races, due to a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court docket ruling.

What subsequent?

Richer requested the state excessive court docket to rule swiftly, as ballots are speculated to exit to navy and abroad voters on Thursday. This mess is the results of insurance policies “pushed by conspiracy theories” about unlawful voting, Fontes instructed reporters. It has “by no means been the case” within the U.S. or Arizona “that noncitizen voting has been something aside from vanishingly uncommon.”