Florida Asks SCOTUS To Ensure Non-Citizens Do Not Vote In Presidential Election

Photo for illustrative purposes onlyPhoto byErnie JourneysonUnsplash

Earlier this month, alongside 23 other states’ attorney generals, Florida’s Attorney General Ashley Moody signed a 28-page amicus brief asking the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) to allow into effect an Arizona law that requires proof of citizenship in order for a person to vote.

The Arizona law in question is House Bill 2492, which the Governor of Arizona signed into law on March, 30, 2022. This law covers voter registration, verification, and citizenship, but more relevantly, it requires that anyone voting in an election within the state of Arizona must “provide satisfactory evidence of citizenship”. This evidence is defined in Section 16-166 Part F.

Applicants can be verified through six methods as follows: a driver’s license or non-operating identification license issued after October 1, 1996; birth certificate, passport, naturalization documents; bureau of Indian affairs card number, tribal enrollment number, or tribal treaty card number; or any other documents or proof in accordance with the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. The full 10-page document defining House Bill 2492 can be read here.

Texas’s Attorney General Ken Paxton was among the 24 state attorney generals who agreed with the voting stipulations described in Arizona’s House Bill 2492. His office released a statement on August 16, 2024, referencing that it is a “commonsense requirement that only American citizens are qualified to vote in American elections”.

Additionally, Paxton’s office stated that a federal district court found Arizona’s law to be preempted by the federal National Voters Registration Act (NRVA). However, opponents to the Arizona law argue that NRVA does not grant states the ability to require proof of citizenship from people who wish to vote.

Regardless, Paxton’s office says that he is imploring SCOTUS “to issue an emergency stay of the district court’s ruling which intentionally misrepresents the NVRA and ignores that States have the sovereign right to regulate their elections”. Paxton also stated his belief that the “Biden-Harris Administration has intentionally flooded our country with illegal aliens” and that if there are no protections in place, then “foreign nationals can and will illegally influence elections at the local, state, and national level”.

As such, Paxton joined a coalition of 24 states to express a shared concern that the “problem of non-citizen voting has gotten worse, as the number of illegal immigrants in the United States has undeniably grown”. According to what they say in the brief, the 24 state attorney generals find each illegal alien to be a possible threat to voter fraud.

Furthermore, they claimed that “even small voting blocs have outsized effects on electoral outcomes”, citing evidence like how Al Franken won his Minnesota Senate seat by just 312 votes in 2008, which is a small enough number of votes that aliens could have decided the election, and how a 2014 study titled Do Non-Citizens Vote In U.S. Elections? estimates 1.2 million illegal non-citizens may have voted in the 2008 presidential election.

In response to this brief, SCOTUS “granted in part and denied in part” the 24-state coalition’s request on Thursday, August 22, 2024. Ultimately, the justices did reinstate the Arizona law in part through a divided 5 to 4 vote.

For more details on this case, visit the SCOTUS website here.

Article by Ema Tibbetts