PHOENIX — The Arizona Republican Party has a legal right to challenge a 20-year-old law that allows some people who never lived in the state to vote in elections here, a judge has ruled.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Michael Herrod said the GOP has a legitimate interest in ensuring that only those who meet the state constitutional definition of residency can cast ballots. He said that entitles the party to seek a ruling on whether the Legislature acted illegally in enacting a 2005 law.
The order does not mean the 2005 statute is unconstitutional. All this does is give attorney Kory Langhofer, who represents the state Republican Party and the Republican National Committee, a chance to make his case in court.
It also gives Langhofer a chance to get some specific data from state and county election officials about exactly how many people who have never lived in Arizona are registered to vote in elections here.
Separately, the federal Uniform Overseas Citizen Absentee Voting Act allows Arizona residents, as well as residents of any other state, to continue to cast ballots while they are overseas. This can involve those in the military, people traveling on business, and students.
Their rights are not at issue.
But the federal law also allows lawmakers in each state to decide whether to extend voting rights to the children of those overseas voters once they turn 18, even if they’ve never stepped foot in Arizona. That’s what Arizona lawmakers did in 2005, with the measure being promoted by a GOP lawmaker and approved unanimously.
It only became a legal issue this year when the Republican organizations questioned how that fits with the Arizona Constitution.
The constitution says voting is reserved for those who “have resided in the state for a period of time preceding such election as prescribed by law.’’
Attorneys for the state told Herrod that lawmakers did meet that requirement: They decided that the required residency period for the children of overseas voters was zero. Herrod, who questioned whether that was “illogical,’’ concluded there is enough question about the legality of that interpretation to allow the Republicans to present their case.
Herrod, however, tossed out a parallel claim by Arizona Republican Party Chair Gina Swoboda. He said there is no legal basis to let her pursue her claim that having these allegedly illegal voters on the rolls diluted her legal vote.
No date has been set for future hearings.
One reason Republicans appear to have taken on this 20-year-old law is their claim it places GOP candidates at a competitive disadvantage.
In Maricopa County, Langhofer said, 51.3% of overseas voters are Democrats, while 18.2% are registered Republicans, 26.5% have no party affiliation, and 4% are signed up with other parties.
By contrast, of the more than 2.6 million people registered to vote in the state’s largest county, 35.5% are Republicans versus 28.2% Democrats.
Overall, the GOP attorney figures there appear to be at least 12,615 overseas voters statewide, though he does not know how many of them are children of Arizona residents.
