A non-citizen in Arizona registered to vote without his knowledge

PHOENIX – Editor's note: An earlier video version of this story misstated the consequences for non-citizens who register to vote. When someone registers to vote, they must confirm their U.S. citizenship under penalty of perjury.

A non-citizen who has lived in Arizona with a green card for several decades has come forward to express confusion that he was suddenly registered to vote after renewing his driver's license.

The man is speaking out after the Maricopa County Recorder's Office discovered last week that a 20-year-old computer coding error failed to report when 98,000 voters provided proof of citizenship when registering. The man fears that more non-citizens could register to vote.

According to the Arizona Secretary of State's Office, most of the voters affected by the error are older and thinner Republicans. All received driver's licenses issued before 1996. The office provided a one-page explanation of the problem.

RELATED: Court rules nearly 98,000 Arizona residents whose citizenship has not been confirmed can fully vote

Leemans, 69, said he renewed his driver's license online through the Arizona Motor Vehicle Department in 2021, when he turned 65. He came to Arizona in the 1980s on a green card sponsored by his Belgium-based company. Years later he moved to a US-based company that now sponsors him.

After renewing his license, he received several strange messages in the mail that made him believe he had become a registered voter.

Those items included a voter ID card with an ID number and two mailed voter education guides with the listed candidates: one for the 2022 election and one for the 2024 election.

The date of issuance of his voter ID card is the same date on which his new driver's license was issued. He immediately contacted election officials.

“I stated that I was a U.S. resident and not a citizen and that I received a voter ID and I don’t believe that was correct,” Leemans said.

In emails provided by Leemans, he attempted to inform election officials of his eligibility to vote in 2022 shortly after receiving the first voter materials. Last month, he contacted the Maricopa County Registrar's Office again to say he had never voluntarily registered to vote and was concerned because he had continued to receive ballots.

“From my personal perspective, I wasn’t worried about it. “Okay, you know, I didn't vote, and I did my best to get myself deregistered,” Leemans said, referring to his effort to get deregistered.

Tammy Patrick, the former federal compliance officer for the Maricopa County Board of Elections, said Leemans may have registered to vote by accidentally checking “yes” on the U.S. citizenship question.

“When you pull out the signed form in your own handwriting, a lot of times people forget it,” Patrick said of her experience with voter reminders. “We need to make sure the system is set up to ensure that voters are really clear about what the transaction is that they are taking place with.”

Leemans said he was certain he would not have answered “yes” to any citizenship question.

“I would never, ever, ever claim to be a U.S. citizen,” Leemans said.

However, documents provided to 12News after the story aired showed the citizenship confirmation box on Leeman's application was checked.

RELATED: Arizona MVD creates code for and helps identify voters who may be affected by data errors

12News began asking Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer's office a series of questions last week, September 19th, including:

• Is Luc Leemans the person who alerted the Maricopa County Recorder's Office (MCRO) to the MVD coding error?
• Leemans claims he initially informed MCRO that he was mistakenly registered to vote in 2022. Did your documents indicate this? If so, why didn't he get an answer?
• Does MCRO know how Leemans became registered as a voter after renewing his driver's license? How does that work?
• Does MCRO know how many other non-citizens may be incorrectly registered to vote?

A spokesman said they could not comment until the investigation into the coding error was completed.

12News asked Patrick if it was worth election officials' time to find out how Leemans got registered to vote.

“Yeah, I think it really makes sense to check again and make sure. I don't know exactly how it was set up, whether it was just forwarding all the old information, or whether it was somehow set up to autofill information. “Those are the things you want to understand,” Patrick said.

12News submitted a request for Leeman's voter records the night of September 18th. This is a request that typically takes one to two business days to process in the clerk's office. The Recorder's office complied with the request on September 25, the morning after the story aired.

Leemans also personally applied for his own documents and received them on the 25th as well.

Maybe, Leemans said, something good will come of this. He still wonders how he managed to become a registered voter without providing proof of citizenship.

“If there is any possibility that any illegal things happened because of this? Then I’m glad I did,” Leemans said as he presented his story.

12News also asked the Department of Motor Vehicles to explain the voter registration process. A spokesperson issued the following statement:

The Secretary of State's Office and the Governor's Office have detailed the situation and the steps taken to resolve the issue. MVD and SOS jointly agreed to create a special identifier in the data submitted to SOS for persons whose licenses or ID cards were originally issued before October 1, 1996 and who have not submitted additional documentation since then. We respectfully decline the opportunity to discuss this on camera. All questions about specific individuals and voter registration should be directed to SOS.

12News continues to question the registrar's office, the state department and the Department of Motor Vehicles about how Leemans – and other affected voters – were able to register without proof of citizenship.

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