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Thousands of voters in Maricopa County caught up in a state record-keeping error won’t yet lose their voting rights for not providing proof of citizenship, county officials now say. But Pinal County has suspended more than a thousand voters affected by the error who have tried to update their registration without providing the proof.
How Maricopa and Pinal handle these affected voters will determine whether they can cast ballots in jurisdictional elections scheduled for Nov. 4. Arizona counties began sending ballots to voters on Oct. 8, and Maricopa and Pinal counties are running their elections entirely by mail.
The suspended Pinal County voters will not receive ballots in the mail. They can cast a provisional ballot, but would have to request it in person.
The state announced the error in September 2024, and since then, election officials have been wrestling with how best to handle it. The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office told 83,000 voters in June that they had 90 days to respond with a birth certificate, passport, or other document, or it would classify them federal-only voters who could vote only in presidential and congressional races.
The 90-day period ended Sept. 25.
But Judy Keane, a spokeswoman for the Maricopa County Recorder, said the office will keep all voters affected by the error in their current voting status for the Nov. 4 election.
“At the same time, the office is diligently working to verify the citizenship status of the approximately 83,000 impacted voters to ensure every lawful voter can participate in the 2026 elections and beyond,” Keane said in an email to Votebeat.
The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office’s new approach aligns with an opinion Attorney General Kris Mayes issued in August, aimed at creating a uniform statewide policy. Secretary of State Adrian Fontes requested the opinion after Votebeat reported that recorders around the state had been treating affected voters in different ways.
Most counties appear to have followed the opinion, which said county recorders don’t have the authority to suspend voters’ registrations or switch them to the federal-only rolls if they fail to respond to notices. Mayes’ opinion doesn’t have the force of law, but Fontes’ office has advised counties to follow it.
How Maricopa and Pinal policies differed
The error originated with a problem in Arizona Motor Vehicle Division records. Roughly 200,000 longtime residents statewide were listed as having provided proof of U.S. citizenship, which is a requirement to vote in state and local elections in Arizona, even though they had not done so or been asked to. The discovery set off a scramble among Arizona counties to notify voters, request proof of citizenship, and determine how to handle voters who didn’t respond.
While Maricopa County told voters it would move them to the federal-only rolls if they didn’t provide proof of citizenship, Pinal County took a different approach.
The Pinal County Recorder’s Office did not disturb the existing registrations of voters caught in the glitch unless they tried to update their registrations without providing proof of citizenship. At that point, if those voters didn’t provide the required proof, their registrations were effectively suspended.
Pinal County based its policy on a state law that requires election officials to reject voter registration applications filed on a state form if they do not include proof of citizenship. The county interpreted that law to also include voters updating their registrations for changes of address, name, or party affiliation, sweeping in the voters affected by the state error.
Lisa James, a spokeswoman for the Pinal County Recorder’s Office, said the office had suspended 1,106 Pinal County voters as of Oct. 9, under its interpretation of state law.
That means those voters will have their voting status set to “unregistered/not registered” pending proof of citizenship, and they will not be able to vote until they provide the citizenship proof, James confirmed.
But these voters’ registrations are not canceled, James said. She added that the recorder’s office has been trying to reach affected voters to let them know what they need to do to reactivate their registration. She said the outreach process started with elections last month: a special election in the 7th Congressional District and one to incorporate San Tan Valley.
“Everybody wants everybody to be able to vote,” James said.
James also said the county has asked the state attorney general’s office whether its approach is correct.
Richie Taylor, a spokesman for Mayes, said his office is “speaking with the county on the matter but I don’t anticipate another opinion.”
Suspended Pinal voters must request provisional ballot in person
Affected voters in Pinal County will still be able to cast a provisional ballot, which will be counted as long as they provide proof of citizenship by 7 p.m. on Election Day, County Recorder Dana Lewis said.
Since the Nov. 4 election will be only by mail, voters will have to visit the Pinal County Recorder’s Office in Florence or one of its satellite offices to obtain a provisional ballot, Lewis said.
Those sites are staffed by election officials who can accept the proof from voters, Lewis told Votebeat by email. “We will be able to capture the required documentation on Election Day,” she wrote.
Fontes said in an emailed statement that he’s glad to see Maricopa County align with the attorney general’s legal opinion and not shift voters to the federal-only rolls. He called the decision “smart and fair,” and said affected voters should be permitted to cast ballots in the upcoming jurisdictional elections.
The problems caused by the MVD’s errors “were not the fault of voters,” Fontes said.
Contact Votebeat at az.tips@votebeat.org.
