By statute, Arizona requires prospective registrants to establish citizenship when using the state’s voter registration form. This helps ensure the integrity of the election process. U.S. citizenship is a requirement for voting. States should take reasonable and commonsense measures to prevent noncitizens from registering and voting. Arizona’s statute was challenged in federal court. On August 22, the Supreme Court overruled a lower court’s injunction preventing Arizona from enforcing this part of the Arizona election law in Republican National Committee v. Mi Familia Vota. This is good news for ballot integrity.
There was a disappointing aspect to the Court’s ruling, however. The Arizona election law would have stopped voters who used thefederal form without proof of citizenship from voting for president or by mail. The lower court blocked this part of the statute, and the Supreme Court declined to reinstate it.
Landmark has been involved in the issue of noncitizen voting for a long time. Back in 2012, Landmark filed a brief in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona to uphold proof of citizenship requirements in voter registration, but the opinion did not go our way.
The issue of noncitizen voting is real. Earlier this month, Virginia identified and removed thousands of noncitizens from its voter rolls. With the influx of millions of noncitizens into the country, it is the duty of all election officials in every state to address this significant issue. This includes federal legislation obligating federal agencies to share data on noncitizens with state election officials. And it means that federal laws should be amended to include an affirmative duty on those same state election officials to remove the names of any noncitizens who appear on voter rolls.
Read the brief here