Tuesday, 19 November 2024

Appeals Court Reverses Itself, State’s Residents Once Again Can Register To Vote Without Proof Of Citizenship

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The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed its prior ruling that Arizona residents must show proof of U.S. citizenship to use the state voter registration form.

Arizonans who lack proof of U.S. citizenship can again sign up to vote in the presidential and congressional elections.

“On August 1, a panel of the Ninth Circuit reversed a previous ruling that MANDATED proof of citizenship for voting in federal elections. In a close 2-1 decision, the new ruling permits individuals to register to vote using a state form without needing to provide citizenship documentation for federal offices like President and Congress,” Chuck Callesto wrote.

Arizona Daily Star reports:

The action comes after two of three judges on a panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals late Thursday overturned a ruling to the contrary by a different three-judge panel whose duty it is to rule on pending motions. The majority of this panel — the one actually assigned to hear the case — concluded the other judges should never have made such a radical change in voting registration rules so soon before the election, saying it would cause chaos.

What Thursday’s ruling did was restore an order issued last year by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton who had concluded that federal law specifically allowed people to register to vote in federal elections without the same kind of proof that Arizona requires of those wanting to cast ballots in state or local elections.

But it provoked an angry reaction from Senate President Warren Petersen who said it is 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.

A similar reaction came from Scot Mussi, president of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club which crafted the 2022 law at issue. He called it “a travesty of law’’ and “poorly reasoned.’’

From 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.

On Thursday, the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office clarified the impact of the ruling.

“Election officials may not reject voter registration applications submitted without DPOC, regardless of which form is used,” communications director Aaron Thacker said. DPOC is shorthand for documentary proof of citizenship.


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