Arizona Supreme Court deals GOP a blow with election ruling

The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that nearly 100,000 voters facing questions over their citizenship documents can cast ballots on Nov. 5, with the chief justice saying they were "unwilling" based on the facts of the case to "disenfranchise voters en masse" from participating in state elections.

In the ruling Friday, the court found that the Maricopa County recorder and other county recorders lack the authority to change voter registration statuses to solely federal ballots, as those voters registered long ago, The Associated Press and Arizona Family reported.

“We are unwilling on these facts to disenfranchise voters en masse from participating in state contests,” Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer said in the ruling. “Doing so is not authorized by state law and would violate principles of due process.

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Adrian Fontes, the Arizona secretary of state, declared on X: "We won."

"No voters on 'the list' will be made Fed-Only," he said. "Congrats team. Thank you amici. Now…let’s go have an election!!"

Stephen Richer, the Maricopa County recorder and a Republican, reacted on X as well, praising the ruling.

"AZ Supreme Court ruled for defendant (Fontes). The 100k registrants will continue to vote a full ballot this election. Thank God," he said. "Thank you Arizona Supreme Court for your extremely quick and professional review of this matter."

The high court found that county recorders are required to verify evidence of citizenship, but that there was no proof in this case that the roughly 98,000 voters in question were non-citizens.

The lawsuit was among a slew of GOP-backed challenges to voters’ citizenship status across the country in the months before the November election.