rizona’s Democratic leaders knew they had no good options when they jumped on a phone call this month. They had just learned tens of thousands of residents had been registered to vote for decades, even though there was no record they had provided proof of citizenship — a requirement under state law.
Their predicament was “an urgent, a dire situation,” Gov. Katie Hobbs said, according to audio of the call obtained by The Washington Post.Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said critics would “beat us up no matter what the hell we do.” Attorney General Kris Mayes worried they would be accused of rigging the 2024 election in a crucial state.
Changing the voting status of these Arizonans risked disenfranchising legitimate voters six weeks before the election. Letting them vote as they had in the past could violate the law. Even though the problem predated these officials by 20 years, it was on them to fix. And though it affected only state and local races, not the presidential or Senate elections, they knewafter four years of attacks on the state’s election systems that no matter what they did, critics would have a ready-made issue to seize on if they didn’t like the outcome in November.
“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,” Hobbs said. “And it’s going to validate all of their theories about illegal voting in our elections, even though we all know that’s not true.”…
“Can you imagine telling 67,000 Republicans they can’t vote on the abortion initiative,” Mayes asked, her tone incredulous. “I mean, Katie, I understand your point about not politicizing this, but 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.”
Responded Hobbs:“They’re going to be calling for new 2020 and ’22 elections as well.”
Fontes reiterated that he wanted voters to receive full ballots, and Hobbs shifted her stance to back him
“I hear you,” the governor said. “I agree with you. It’s your position to do that, not mine, and I’m going to support your call.”
But, she noted, they would face a wave of criticism. “It’s still going to create just this s— storm of ‘told you so, all these illegals are voting,’ from the other side,” said the governor, referring to Republicans.
Fontes argued that no matter what they say or do, Republicans are “going to beat us up.”
Hobbs had suggested that the issue would be best solved with a court decision. “That would provide that cover, that legal cover,” the governor said. She suggested that the litigation should come “from someone who’s friendly to us,” who would align with their desire to keep the solution nonpartisan.
That notion within days evolved into what Fontes called a “friendly lawsuit” that Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (R) brought against the secretary of state. Richer, like the three Democrats, has faced years of threats and harassment for doing his job. He lost his July primary election to another Republican and had little to lose by initiating a legal fight.
Fontes and Richer asked the state Supreme Court to quickly give them an answer. Around the same time, Hobbs announced the computer issues at the division of motor vehicles that caused the problem had been quickly fixed. Soon after, the court issued a ruling that said the voters’ eligibility to cast full ballots should remain in place. Richer declined to comment Saturday….