Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Mesa), an attorney who is running for Arizona Attorney General, and Arizona House Speaker Steve Montenegro (R-Glendale) submitted a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the Arizona Legislature, asking the court to uphold Arizona’s law requiring proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. The law expands the state’s requirement to all voters, not just voters in state and local elections.
The Ninth Circuit had struck down parts of House Bill (HB) 2243 and HB 2492, which also require election officials to check government databases to identify potential non-citizens or non-residents on voter rolls.
“For more than two decades, Arizona has required proof of citizenship to register to vote, because only American citizens should decide American elections,” Petersen said in a press release. “The Ninth Circuit ignored Supreme Court precedent, rewrote federal law, and substituted its judgment for that of Arizona voters and their elected representatives. We are asking the Supreme Court to restore the proper balance between federal and state authority and reaffirm Arizona’s right to protect the integrity of its elections.”
Until the last couple of years, when a few other states passed similar laws, Arizona was the only state in the country to require documented proof of citizenship (DPOC) in order to register to vote in state and local elections. Voters who do not provide DPOC are only permitted to vote in federal elections. That exception was carved out in a consent decree signed by former Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan in 2018, after progressive groups sued the state.
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