Fontes asks Mayes to explain how AZ can implement reinstated voter registration law

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Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes wants Attorney General Kris Mayes to provide elections officials guidance on how Arizona can enforce part of a voter registration law that the U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed to go into effect, even as another court weighs its constitutionality.

The Supreme Court last month ordered Arizona to enforce part of a 2022 law expanding citizenship requirements for new voters, lifting a block on the law that had been put in place by a lower court judge.

The high court’s move allows Arizona to implement a portion of the law that allows the state to stop accepting state-created voter registration forms from Arizona residents unless proof of citizenship is provided.

Now, Fontes has asked Mayes for a legal opinion in light of the ruling.

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First, Fontes wants to know if county recorders can perform a standard check on a person whose voter registration doesn’t include documented proof of citizenship prior to rejecting the form. If so, and county elections officials are able to obtain that proof via the check, he wants Mayes to advise whether they can register that person to vote.

Second, Fontes wants Mayes to opine on the official date of registration for a voter who fails to provide proof of citizenship with the initial form, but does so later. Should the date of registration, he asked, be for the original registration date or when the citizenship proof was provided?

Finally, county recorders are required to give those registering to vote until 7 p.m. on Election Day to provide proof of citizenship, but a consent decree in the case states that information must be provided no later than the Thursday before Election Day. Fontes wants Mayes to advise which deadline county recorders should follow.

Arizona law requires people to show proof of citizenship to register to vote, which was approved by voters in 2004 as Proposition 200. However, the federal National Voter Registration Act of 1993 requires states to accept federal voter registration forms, which do not have that requirement. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Arizona cannot reject those forms.

That ruling created a dual system where voters who prove citizenship can vote in every race on the ballot, while those who attest to being citizens under penalty of perjury but fail to provide documentation can only vote in federal contests.

Arizona has approximately 32,000 “federal only” voters .

An analysis by Votebeat found that the Arizona law is likely to disproportionately affect younger voters who live on college campuses and often register to vote without proper documents.

The portion of the law being contested that can now be enforced is aimed at stopping non-citizens from voting in the state by requiring citizenship checks on the federal voter forms.

The law has been challenged by voting rights groups and trial courts have failed to uphold portions of the law, such as requiring proof of citizenship for voters to register via a state form and another portion that barred residents who register using a federal form from voting by mail unless they provide proof of citizenship.

The Supreme Court declined a request by the Republican National Committee to reinstate the portion regarding mail-in voting for presidential elections.

Republicans have been falsely claiming that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him and cite noncitizens voting as a widespread problem across the country. There is no evidence to support that claim and studies have shown that non-citizen voting is exceedingly rare .

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