Tuesday’s suit by the Justice Department was filed to stop a new Arizona law requiring proof of citizenship in order to vote in federal elections.
The law was scheduled to go into effect January 1, and was passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature. It was signed into law by Republican Governor. Doug Ducey. It imposes on voters and election workers the responsibility to verify citizenship before registrants are allowed to vote in presidential elections.
Kristen Clarke, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division stated in a statement that the law’s “onerous documentary evidence of citizenship requirement for federal elections constitutes an textbook violation of The National Voter Registration Act”. This includes provisions like “requiring election officials reject voter registration forms based upon errors or omissions that do not contribute to establishing a voter’s eligibility to vote.”
Clarke also added that the new statute is similar to an Arizona law that was struck down by the U.S Supreme Court in 2013.
In the suit, the lawsuit describes how Arizona’s attorney warned legislators that the bill would be against federal law and contrary to an earlier Supreme Court ruling. According to court filings, Travis Grantham, House Speaker Pro Tempore, stated that trying again was “a fight worth having.”
Mark Brnovich, the state attorney general, suggested that the Justice Department encouraged undocumented immigrants vote by filing the lawsuit. Brnovich stated Tuesday that he would be back in court to defend Arizona from the lawlessness of Biden’s administration.
Arizona has required that voters who register on state forms must prove their citizenship using documents such as driver’s licenses and photocopies U.S. passports. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Arizona could not require voters who registered on federal forms to provide proof of citizenship. Voters who don’t have such documentation can vote in Arizona federal elections.
Ducey argued that the measure would reduce the number of voters who have not presented proof of citizenship to the election workers. Ducey claimed that more than 11,000 2020 voters had not provided proof they were citizens. Arizona was won by President Joe Biden by less than 11,000 votes.
