Judge upholds parts of Arizona law that require voters to prove their citizenship
Republicans and Democrats claimed victory days after a federal judge ruled mixed decision in Arizona’s ongoing battle over voting rights and public confidence in elections, maintaining requirements for voters to prove their citizenship but limiting the ways voters can be disqualified.
The decision, issued last Thursday, targeted two voting laws passed in Arizona in 2022 by Republican lawmakers, who said they were needed to keep noncitizens from casting ballots. Latino voting rights groups and the U.S. Department of Justice had challenged the laws in court, claiming they violated the civil rights of immigrants and minority voters.
One of the laws created new requirements for voters to provide proof of citizenship. The others required local election officials to conduct checks to purge potentially ineligible voters.
In a 109-page ruling, Justice Susan R. Bolton struck down some parts of the laws while leaving important parts in place, saying Arizona had an interest in ensuring non-citizens could not vote.
The ruling is unlikely to end the furor over voting that has raged in Arizona since President Donald J. Trump narrowly lost the state in 2020. He and his supporters have attacked Arizona election officials and the state’s popular mail-in voting system. Republican lawmakers conducted a much-criticized partisan audit of the 2020 election in the state’s most populous county.
Generally, voters already provide proof of citizenship when they register for state elections. On Monday, voting rights groups celebrated the ruling as a victory, while local election officials were still trying to understand how it might affect the way they maintain voter rolls.
Gabriella Cázares-Kelly, the Pima County Recorder in Tucson, criticized the laws as “a blatant attempt at discrimination” and said she was encouraged that the judge had struck down key provisions of them. She said she didn’t think the ruling would significantly change how her office handles elections or voter registration.
“We see this largely as a victory,” Ms. Cázares-Kelly, a Democrat, said in an interview. “We hope we can move forward with some clarity.”
Even as the primary goes to voters, the elections official overseeing the vote in Maricopa County is trying to counter the election. criticism from conservative voters about the integrity of their ballots.
The two laws at issue in the judge’s ruling passed over Democratic opposition and were signed into law by then-Republican Governor Doug Ducey.
In their legal challenges, Latino activists and other voting rights groups argued that the measures could result in thousands of immigrant and minority voters being kicked off the rolls. The Justice Department has also filed a lawsuit.
Judge Bolton struck down parts of the laws for violating the Civil Rights Act and a federal voter registration law. She also scrapped measures that required voters to state where they were born and provide proof of where they lived.
She left in place some provisions that required local election officials in Arizona to do their own research by comparing voter information with other government databases.
But she rejected a portion of that law that required election officials to conduct monthly checks on voters if they had “reason to believe” a voter was not a citizen. Voting rights groups said the standard could allow officials to doubt and scrutinize voters’ qualifications based on weak suspicions, such as whether they had a Spanish last name or wore a hijab.
“You just can’t be suspicious of people, maybe because of their skin color or a strange feeling,” said Joseph Garcia of Chicanos Por La Causa, one of the groups that sued to overturn the laws. “There has to be more to suspect that someone should not vote.”
The judge ruled that it was “quite rare” for non-citizens to vote in Arizona.
Other parts of the laws had been abolished months earlier, including a provision that would have prevented people from voting in presidential elections if they had not shown proof of citizenship.
Anyone wishing to vote in Arizona state elections must provide a driver’s license, passport or other proof of citizenship, but for federal elections the United States only requires voters to fill out the form a form in which they swear that they are citizens. Arizona has about 20,000 of these “federal only” voters, and they are disproportionately racial minorities.
In a victory for conservatives, Judge Bolton ruled that challengers had not proven the laws had a discriminatory intent. And she said requiring proof of citizenship at all did not put undue pressure on people’s right to vote.
Ben Toma, the speaker of the Arizona House and a Republican, said he was “pleased” with the partial victory.
“The court found that plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that Arizona’s voting laws were enacted for any discriminatory purpose,” he said in a statement.
Since voting laws were passed, Arizona has elected Democrats as governor, attorney general and secretary of state. Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes did not comment on the rulings Friday. But Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, largely hailed the decision as a victory for voters’ rights.
“Today’s op-ed dismantles a blatant attempt to suppress the votes of Arizona’s diverse electorate,” he said in a statement. “This ruling reaffirms that voter suppression has no place in our democracy.”