By In a landmark decision, the liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that non-citizens in Arizona can register to vote without providing proof of citizenship. This decision overturns a previous ruling that mandated proof of citizenship for voter registration in the state. The ruling could significantly impact the upcoming presidential election, where Arizona’s 11 electoral votes are seen as potentially decisive.
The ruling reinstates the use of the state-issued voter registration form for those unable to provide citizenship documentation. These registrants, while barred from voting in state and local elections, can participate in federal races, including the presidential election, writes The Arizona Republic.
It’s another dizzying swerve in the legal battle over a 2022 law that aims ultimately to reverse a portion of the National Voter Registration Act and require all Arizona voters to show proof of citizenship to register to vote.
The order reopens a path for potential voters who just two weeks ago were barred from using the state voter registration form to sign up to vote unless they could produce proof of U.S. citizenship. It comes with two months left before the Oct. 7 registration deadline for the high-stakes presidential election.
The order means people can again use the state-issued voter registration form even if they don’t produce proof of citizenship. Instead, they attest under penalty of perjury that they are citizens, and are limited to voting in federal races only.
In the first 10 days after the July 18 ruling that required the documentary proof, the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office said it had rejected 200 voter applications.
Republicans in Arizona slammed the ruling as another case where liberals have undermined election integrity.
Senate President Warren Petersen, a Republican, said the court’s ruling was just another example of “the radical 9th Circuit.’’
“They routinely engage in judicial warfare to carry out their extremist liberal agenda that’s contrary to the laws our citizens elected us to implement,’’ said Petersen, a Gilbert Republican. And he vowed to seek immediate review by the U.S. Supreme Court ahead of the November election.
Tuscon.com reported that “Of the more than 4.1 million registered voters, there are about 35,000 Arizonans who have signed up to vote without proof of citizenship and will be entitled to vote in November not only for president but also weigh in on who is the state’s next U.S. senator as well as who is elected to each of the state’s nine seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Central to all of this is the question of whether those who register without proof of citizenship are not legally entitled to vote.”
This isn’t the first time that Democrats in Arizona have moved to allow non-citizens to potentially vote for president. In February, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes launched the state’s Election Procedures Manual (EPM) that permits individuals whose citizenship cannot be verified to register as a “federal-only” voters, which will allow them to vote in the upcoming elections.
Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, spoke with The Daily Caller, saying he thinks Arizona’s two-tiered voter registration system would likely allow illegal migrants to vote in the upcoming elections.
“I think it’s absolutely a possibility because if you aren’t requiring proof of citizenship, you’re simply going on people’s word that oh yeah I’m a U.S. citizen, you’re going to get aliens who register and who vote,” von Spakovsky said.
The key part of the federal law regarding registering to vote—a law that the 9th Circuits referenced—revolves around who prosecutes those who illegally vote in the United States, von Spakovsky argued.
“The Justice Department, they don’t prosecute these cases, even though it’s a felony under federal law for an alien to register and vote,” he continued. “Aliens have an incentive, a voter registration card, which you get when you register, that’s a gateway for getting other kinds of ID.”
Will President Kamala Harris direct her Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute illegal aliens whose votes helped her win the White House?
That is an easy answer to figure out.
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