Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Arizona’s free newsletter here.
Arizona counties are starting to send letters to some longtime voters telling them that they must provide documentation proving their citizenship before they vote again, prompting annoyance and confusion across the state.
Around 200,000 longtime residents, or roughly 5% of the state’s voter roll, will eventually get such letters because they were caught up in a decades-long state error tracking proof of citizenship. Affected voters will need to provide a birth certificate, passport, or other documents proving their citizenship. If they don’t, they’ll eventually be restricted to voting only in federal elections, or be kicked off the voter rolls entirely.
Some of these voters have been registered for decades. That includes 67-year-old Mindy Lively, of Globe in Gila County, who was born in Mesa and said she has voted in state and local elections for more than 40 years.
When Lively, a Democrat, got the letter last month she said she initially figured it was a Republican ploy to kick her off the rolls, in connection with the party’s national campaign against noncitizen voting. But even now, knowing it’s due to a state error, she said she shouldn’t have to go through the trouble of providing the documentation.
“It’s just crazy that they are making me do this,” she said.
Michelle DeMarsh, of Kingman, said she was annoyed when she and her husband received the letters. DeMarsh, 63, has also been a voter in the state for more than four decades. Now, she must request her birth certificate from California and send it in to Mohave County to ensure she can keep voting.
“I think about people in my age group who aren’t well, or don’t have what they need,” she said. “I’ll jump through the hoops, because I’m hell-bent to vote, but I don’t know.”
Here’s what to know about the state error, and what to do if you receive a letter.
What caused this problem?
Since 2004, Arizona has been requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in state and local elections.
Since then, when someone tries to register to vote, county recorders have relied heavily on the applicant’s driver’s license information to check their citizenship status and eligibility to vote.
Only driver’s licenses issued after October 1996 count as proof of citizenship, since that’s when the state started collecting citizenship information for normal driver’s licenses. But for residents with licenses issued before that, the state’s Motor Vehicle Division incorrectly coded them as having already proved their citizenship, when they hadn’t. Based on that information in the license records, the recorders believed that those voters had provided citizenship proof and were eligible to vote a full ballot, rather than just the federal races.
Why are residents being asked now to provide the documentation?
State officials announced their discovery of the error last summer.
The Arizona Supreme Court quickly ruled that state and county officials should wait until after the presidential election to address the problem. After the election, some counties waited for clearer guidance from the state on how to approach the affected voters and what to tell them. That’s why counties are just now starting to notify voters that they will need to provide documentation.
After discovering the error, the state was able to find proper documentation for around 20,000 of the affected voters. But that still left 200,000 voters for the counties to contact. Some counties were able to find documentation for some voters before sending out letters to the full list, but others haven’t tried.
Who will get a letter?
Voters on the list are people who meet both of these criteria:
- They initially got an Arizona driver’s license before October 1996.
- They registered to vote in Arizona at some point after 2004, including after any moves across county lines within Arizona.
Because of those time parameters, all of the voters on the list are at least 46 years old.
Residents who registered to vote before 2004, when the state enacted its law requiring citizenship proof to register to vote, were grandfathered in and do not need to provide citizenship proof unless they have moved across county lines since 2004 and re-registered to vote in their new county.
To find out whether you are on the list of affected voters, visit the state’s voter registration records website. Any affected voter should have their registration flagged.
Are all counties all handling this in the same way?
Counties are alerting the affected voters differently across the state.
Gila, Mohave and Pinal counties, at least, have begun to send out letters to voters. Other counties, including Maricopa County, are waiting until after this year’s local elections, which occur on different dates around the state.
The letters have varying wording and directions for how voters should fix the problem, even though the Secretary of State’s Office provided guidance to the counties on how to communicate with voters. Recorders say their offices are receiving some calls from confused voters.
What happens if these voters don’t provide documentation?
At a certain point, the voters will either be removed from the voter rolls entirely, or limited to vote a federal-only ballot. When that would happen is still unclear.
County attorneys have taken different positions on how to properly address the issue, and a final solution is pending before the Legislature.
What should someone do if they receive the letter?
Voters who receive the letter should arrange to provide proof of citizenship to their county recorder’s office before the next election.
The letter should have instructions on what types of documents are accepted and how to provide documents to the office, along with a phone number to call with questions.
Have you received a letter?
Votebeat wants to hear from voters who receive a letter. If you have received one, please fill out the survey below, and feel free to email jfifield@votebeat.org with questions.
Read more Votebeat coverage of Arizona’s error in tracking proof of citizenship:
- Error with tracking citizenship puts nearly 100,000 Arizona voters’ eligibility in limbo
- Voters affected by citizenship-check error can cast a full ballot, Arizona Supreme Court rules
- Arizona labeled longtime residents as citizens without proof for years, leading to voter roll errors
- Audit shows extent of Arizona’s problems with tracking voters’ citizenship
- Arizona officials struggle to straighten out voter rolls after proof-of-citizenship mixup
- Arizona voters caught up in state’s citizenship-proof error could see their registrations canceled
Jen Fifield is a reporter for Votebeat based in Arizona. Contact Jen at jfifield@votebeat.org.
