The Arizona Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Friday that nearly 98,000 people whose citizenship had not been verified can now vote in state and local elections, which could significantly impact key state ballot measures and tight legislative races.

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

The ruling follows a glitch in Arizona’s driver’s license database that left thousands of voters wrongly registered due to an outdated system. Because no law allows county recorders to change their registration status, these voters won’t face restrictions in the upcoming November election. The issue stemmed from how the Motor Vehicle Division shares information with the state’s voter registration system, affecting those who got their Arizona driver’s license before October 1996 and registered to vote after 2004.

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer raised concerns earlier this week about the driver’s license database and asked the Arizona Supreme Court to restrict nearly 98,000 voters who have been voting for decades and aren’t suspected of being noncitizens to federal races only unless they provide proof of citizenship soon. Richer claimed that letting these individuals vote in state and local elections without showing proof of citizenship would break state law. He asked the court to decide if Secretary of State Adrian Fontes has overstepped his authority and whether election officials need to verify these voters’ proof of citizenship before giving them full ballots for the November election despite the Purcell Doctrine, which prohibits courts from changing voting or election rules too close to an election to avoid confusion for voters and election officials.

Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes pushed back, however, arguing that these voters, who are predominantly Republican and aged 45 to 60, can’t have their status changed so close to the November 5 election. His stance, backed by the Arizona Republican Party, GOP leaders, and voting rights advocates, emphasized that there is no legal way to alter the registration of so many voters just weeks before Election Day.

Secretary Fontes praised the ruling and said it was a win for voting rights in Arizona.