United States – The U. S. Supreme Court on Thursday partially reversed an Arizona voter law that imposed proven U. S citizenship as a requirement for voter registration in response to a plea by the Republican National Committee and Arizona Republicans.
The justices decided to restore the part of the law after a federal judge paused it following lawsuits by Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration and advocacy groups, as reported by Reuters.
Arizona’s Stringent Voter Registration Measures Reinstated
The decision is made ahead of the November 5 election where Democratic vice-presidential candidate is Kamala Harris, against Republican Donald Trump, who has continued to spread misinformation about the electoral fraud that was conducted during his loss in the previous year.
In 2022, the Arizona legislature, which is dominated by the republican party, enhanced the measures to the registration of voters. The law makes it mandatory for applicants who filled out the federal registration form to produce proof of their U.S. citizenship to vote in presidential elections or vote by e-mail in any federal elections.
Voter registrants who complete a state-created form, however, are subjected to much more stringent standards. All state applications are rejected in their entirety if the applicants cannot confirm their U. S. citizenship, and the officials who ignore this rule will be charged with a minor felony.
Currently, the provision connected with the state voter registration form was restored by the Supreme Court, whereas the unique judicial decision prohibiting the provision that would further regulate the federal form was preserved.
When the Republican then-Governor Doug Ducey signed the legislation in March 2022, he said, opens new tab the measure was about the equal importance of making voting easier and securing elections.
“Election integrity means the lawful votes must be counted and all attempts at unlawful voting must be stopped,” said Ducey.
A Battle Over Voting Rights
The Biden administration sued to prevent the law in July 2022 because it was preempted by a federal statute known as the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. The law states that after states receive the federal registration form where an applicant must declare that he or she is a U. S. citizen under penalty of perjury although not necessarily accompanied by documentary evidence, states must register the voters for the federal elections.
Another legal claim stated that the Arizona law was in violation of a previous consent decree entered in 2018 that mandated state election officials to register voters who fail to produce documentary proof of their U. S. citizenship for the federal elections, regardless of the form used– federal or state.
The Republican National Committee and Arizona’s main Republican politicians came to the defense of the law.
Ongoing Legal Battles
In September 2023, Phoenix-based U. S. District Judge Susan Bolton ruled in favor of the Biden administration and other plaintiffs in a challenge to Arizona’s proof of citizenship. She prevented the state from disqualifying federal-form applicants from voting for the president, voting by mail, or rejecting state-form applications if they did not have citizenship documents.
A three-judge panel of the Ninth U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which considered the case on the merits, did not stay Bolton’s decision. This led to an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court by the Republican National Committee and Arizona Republicans.
Democratic attorneys general from Arizona opposed the Republicans’ request to the justices coupled with a negative opinion from the state’s attorney general coupled with the secretary of state.
Arizona, which is considered to be one of the key states for the November election, has become the scene of the U. S. voting rights struggle.
Republican-authored study of the 2020 presidential election was heavily criticized, but the analysis revealed that there were no instances of foul play that would have denied Trump a win to Joe Biden.
Arizona passed a law in 2005 that took effect after voters must include proof of citizenship in the registration process, but the U. S Supreme Court declared in 2013 that the state could not implement theprovision where voters who used the federal form that registers them to vote be provided proof of citizenship, as reported by Reuters.
Since then, the state has let those voters vote in federal contests only and not state and local ones.
Historical Context and Future Implications
According to the state data, Arizona had more than 42,000 ‘federal only’ registered voters as of July 1.
The Republican-dominated U. S House of Representatives considered and passed an identical bill earlier this year that requires proof of citizenship before being permitted to register to vote in elections, but this did not make any headway in the Democrat-laden U. S Senate.