To Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, the state law requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration is “common sense,” not a burden. To opponents, Arizona’s Proposition 200 is just another obstacle that would restrict access to the polls for the young, elderly and minorities. The U.S. Supreme Court will weigh in this month in a hearing that will be watched closely by voting-rights advocates and by several other states with similar laws. At issue in the March 18 hearing is a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which said federal law trumps state law on voter-registration requirements. The appeals court said in April that voters could use a federal mail-in registration form, established by the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, which requires that they attest to their citizenship only through a signature.
Arizona’s law, approved by voters in 2004, requires some proof of citizenship — a passport, birth certificate, driver’s license, tribal or other documents — before a person can register. The appeals court said the state can still require proof for the state form but could not keep someone from registering by using the federal form.
Horne said the state law is necessary, pointing to a U.S. District Court finding that 200 non-citizens had registered to vote in 2005.
“Everybody I’ve talked to feels like if you’re going to register to vote, you should provide evidence you are a citizen,” Horne said.
But a national survey of voter-fraud cases last year by News21, a reporting project run by a coalition of universities, turned up only seven confirmed cases of voter fraud in Arizona from 2000 through 2011.
Sam Wercinski, executive director for Arizona Advocacy Network, said that when Prop. 200 passed, many ads alluded to undocumented immigrants trying to hijack the political process. The shortage of known voter-fraud cases shows the weakness of that argument, he said.
Wercinski said that the law would only lead to disenfranchising Native Americans, Latinos, and young and elderly voters and that it was written “so those currently in political power can maintain power.”
Full Article: Proposal to change voter-registration rules fueling debate.