Thursday, Sep. 26, 2024
Did Arizona election officials register nearly 100,000 non-citizens to vote?
Arizona election officials recently discovered a data-coding issue that mistakenly classified more than 200,000 voters as having furnished proof of citizenship when it was unclear whether they’d actually done so. No evidence suggests these voters are non-citizens. Non-citizen voting in the United States is extremely rare.
Arizona is the only state that requires prospective voters to prove they are citizens. Those who don’t receive limited “federal-only” ballots, which don't include state and local races.
Driver’s licenses issued after October 1996 are considered valid proof of citizenship under Arizona law. The voters in question are longtime residents who obtained licenses before 1996.
Arizona’s Supreme Court ruled the affected voters can receive full ballots in November, noting that it was unclear whether the individuals had proved their citizenship prior and hesitating to disenfranchise them based on a government error.
Affected voters will need to prove citizenship before voting in subsequent elections.
Editor’s note (10/1/24): The number of voters affected by this coding error has been updated to reflect a higher estimate released by the Arizona Secretary of State.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Arizona Secretary of State Arizona Voter Data Coding Oversight Updated
- Arizona Secretary of State Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to Address Data Coding Oversight Press Release
- Cato Institute Noncitizens Don’t Illegally Vote in Detectable Numbers
- Heritage Foundation Voter Fraud Map: Election Fraud Database
- Arizona Secretary of State Arizona Voter Registration Analysis Update
- Arizona State Legislature A.R.S. § 41-1080
- Arizona Secretary of State Secretary of State Adrian Fontes Addresses Data Coding Oversight Press Conference
- Arizona Supreme Court Decision to allow 98,000 voters to remain full-ballot in November 2024 election
- PBS Arizona high court rules nearly 98,000 people whose citizenship hadn’t been confirmed can vote the full ballot
About fact briefs
Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
See all fact briefs
The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is the state’s only independent, nonpartisan and collaborative nonprofit newsroom dedicated to statewide, data-driven investigative reporting. AZCIR's mission is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable by exposing injustice and systemic inequities through investigative journalism.
Learn MoreLatest Fact Briefs
Is Ukraine selling half of its U.S.-supplied weapons to Mexican cartels?
Monday, Feb. 17, 2025
Do the 10 U.S. states with the highest maternal mortality rates have abortion bans?
Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025