The Justice Department on Tuesday sued Arizona for a new state law that requires proof of citizenship to vote in a presidential election, saying the restrictions imposed by Republicans are a “textbook violation” of federal law.
This is the third time Attorney General Merrick B. Garland’s department has challenged a state’s voting law and it comes when Democratic leaders and voting rights groups have pressured Mr. Garland to act more decisively against measures that they limit access to voting.
Arizona law, which Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, signed in March, requires voters to prove their citizenship by voting in presidential elections, such as showing a birth certificate or passport. It also requires newly registered voters to provide proof of residency, which could disproportionately affect people with limited access to government-issued ID cards. These include immigrants, students, seniors, low-income voters, and Native Americans.
“Arizona has passed a law that turns back the clock by imposing illegal and unnecessary requirements that would block eligible voters from registration lists for certain federal elections,” said Kristen Clarke, deputy attorney general for the civil rights division of the Department of Justice, to journalists. Tuesday.
Ms Clarke said that by imposing what she described as “onerous” requirements, the law “constitutes a violation of textbooks” of the National Voter Registration Act, which facilitates registration to vote. The department said the law also violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by requiring election officials to reject voter registration forms based on errors or omissions that are not relevant to a voter’s eligibility.
In March, 31,500 “federal-only” voters could be prevented from voting in the upcoming presidential election under the new requirements if state officials are unable to track their information in time to validate their ballots.
Some voting rights groups claim that the number of affected voters could be even higher. But even a few thousand fewer votes could be decisive in Arizona, one of the most contested battlefield states: in 2020, Joseph R. Biden Jr. defeated President Donald J. Trump in Arizona by about 10,000 votes.
A spokesman for Mr. Ducey did not immediately respond to requests for comment. When he signed the bill in March, Mr. Ducey said the law, which was expected to go into effect in January, was “a balanced approach that honors Arizona’s history of making voting accessible without sacrificing security in our election.”
Arizona has been at the center of some of the most controversial battles during the 2020 election. Six months after the election, its Republican-led Senate authorized an external review of elections in Maricopa County, an abnormal step that is it quickly became a focus for conspiracy theorists. The state has also passed multiple laws that impose new restrictions on voting.
Even before the Republican-controlled Legislature passed the measure, current state law required all voters to provide proof of citizenship to vote in state elections. Federal voter registration forms still required voters to certify that they were citizens, but did not provide documentary evidence.
In 2013, the Supreme Court upheld that law but added that Arizona had to accept the federal voter registration form for the federal election. This essentially created a bifurcated system in Arizona that would require documented proof of citizenship to vote in state elections, but would allow those who simply register with the federal voter register to be able to vote in federal elections.
The new law could threaten the registries of these voters, preventing tens of thousands of them from voting in the presidential election, voting rights groups claim.
“There will certainly be some people in Arizona who will not be able to vote with the citizenship proof requirement,” said Jon Greenbaum, chief adviser to the nonpartisan Law Committee for Civil Rights under the law and a former councilor. Lawyer of the Department of Justice.
While the new law would have far-reaching consequences for many groups, local election officials have noted that delivering documentary evidence of citizenship can be especially difficult among Native American populations, who were key to helping turn Arizona into Mr. Biden. in 2020.
“You may have people born on reservations who may not have birth certificates, and therefore it may be very difficult to prove citizenship on paper in some way,” said Adrian Fontes, former Maricopa County Electoral Administrator. and current Democratic candidate for secretary. of state. “Things of this nature have always been of great concern to Arizona election administrators.”
In June 2021, the department sued Georgia for its comprehensive voting law that revised the state’s electoral administration and introduced a number of voting restrictions in the state, especially postal voting. In November, the department sued Texas for a provision that limited available voter turnout.
Marc Elias, a Democratic election lawyer who represented a group that filed a lawsuit against Arizona earlier this year, said he was relieved to see that the department would fulfill Mr. Biden’s promise last year to counter a threat of Republican-sponsored state laws he called. the “most significant test for democracy” since the Civil War.
“Adding the voice and authority of the United States is incredibly useful for the fight for voting rights,” Elias said in an interview.