Democrats admit thousands of registered Arizona voters haven't provided proof of citizenship after shock computer 'glitch'

Arizona's Democratic leaders, on a secret call, worried about a shocking discovery that, if made public, would see them accused of rigging the upcoming election and question the results of the last two.

'When this goes public, it is going to have all of the conspiracy theorists in the globe — in the world — coming back to re-litigate the past three elections, at least in Arizona,' Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs said on the call, a recording of which was obtained by The Washington Post.

As they game planned scenarios on how to respond, it became apparent it was about 100,000 Republican voters who would be affected, to the betterment of Democrats.

'If we do what you're talking about, we're talking about disenfranchising probably tens of thousands of Republican voters,' Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said.

The state leadership held the crisis call after learning tens of thousands of residents had been registered to vote for decades, even though there was no record they had provided proof of citizenship, which is required under Arizona law.

The revelation could have resulted in thousands of voters being thrown off the ballot, multiple lawsuits on the issue and many questions about the legitimacy of the results in Arizona, a key state that could decide the winner of November's presidential election. 

It turns out to be a problem that had gone unaddressed for 20 years. 

In 2004, Arizona passed a law requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship to vote. But, about 10 years later, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a federal law that prevented the state from requiring proof of citizenship to vote for president and other federal offices.

In order to comply with the new federal ruling, Arizona adopted a dual-registration system. 

Those who provided proof of citizenship receive full ballots that include local, state and federal races. Those who did not received ballots with only races for federal offices.

But a discovery this month revealed tens of thousands of voters had been marked as eligible to receive full ballots even though there was no record of them having provided citizenship documents.

And that led to the Democrats' dilemma: Changing these people's voting status risked disenfranchising legitimate voters six weeks before the election. Letting them vote as they had in the past could violate the law.

Originally, state leaders worried the problem affected about 148,000 voters.

But the final tally ended up being about 98,000 - nearly of whom leaned Republican and nearly all of them appeared to be citizens.

Hobbs argued one way to deal with the politically explosive situation was to give these voters only the ballots with the federal races. 

But Mayes, the attorney general, and Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes argued they couldn't disenfranchise so many voters this close to the election.

Fontes also pointed out federal law bars states from making massive changes to their voter registration lists fewer than 90 days before an election.

Mayes noted that trying to get the proper proof of citizenship into the system would be a logistical nightmare.

'Think about all of the 82-year-olds in wheelchairs who are not going to be able to make it to the polls and sure as hell aren't going to, like, be able to find their f***ing driver's licenses or birth certificates in time,' she said.

'If we do what you're talking about, we're talking about disenfranchising probably tens of thousands of Republican voters,' she said. 

In addition to the presidential race, voters in Arizona will also decide on a constitutional amendment to ensure a woman's right to an abortion and decide which party controls the state legislator.

Mayes, the attorney general, worried that their Democratic trio would be accused of disenfranchising Republicans to gain an advantage in those contests. 

'We can't do that,' she said. 

Fontes, the secretary of state, summed it up: 'They're going to beat us up no matter what the hell we do, no matter what the hell we say.' 

And the bigger problem was faith in the system.

'It's going to validate all of their theories about illegal voting in our elections, even though we all know that's not true,' Hobbs, the governor, fretted on the call, according to The Washington Post. 

Mayes worried about the outcome if they removed the voters from the ballot: 'The reality is that if we let this happen, all of these elections are challengeable. They're going to be calling for a new election.'

Hobbs replied: 'They're going to be calling for new 2020 and '22 elections as well.'

The leaders came up with a solution: a friendly lawsuit to give them legal cover. 

The state announced computer issues at the division of motor vehicle brought about the glitch, which had been fixed.

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican, sued Fontes. The state Supreme Court ruled the voters' eligibility to cast full ballots should remain in place. 

But the details from the call reveal how worried state leaders are about the November 5th election and the reaction to whatever the outcome may be. 

Republicans are already laying the ground work to file lawsuits in several battleground states should Donald Trump lose, including in Arizona.  

Arizona was ground zero for conspiracy theories and recounts in the 2020 contest where Trump falsely claimed the election was stolen from him. 

Several counties conducted hand-count audits and found no evidence of voter fraud. An investigation into Maricopa County's ballots - which cost millions of dollars - found no proof of claims there Chinese ballots with paper containing bamboo.

At the time, Hobbs was the secretary of state and faced death threats as she oversaw the process. Fontes was the recorder for Maricopa County.

And several top Trump allies face charges in the state for their alleged actions in Arizona after the election. Mayes leads that prosecution.