By Tim Gaynor
PHOENIX, Oct 7 (Reuters) – Arizona, long at odds with
Washington over immigration policy, plans to require voters to
show proof of citizenship to vote in state polls, even after it
lost a high court battle to demand such documentation for
federal elections.
The U.S. Supreme Court voted 7-2 in June to strike down a
voter-registration law designed to stop illegal immigrants from
casting ballots in the state, which borders Mexico and has been
at the heart of the U.S. national battle over immigration.
The law had required would-be voters to show proof of
citizenship both when registering to vote and when casting a
ballot, but the court ruled that the measure was trumped by
federal law.
On Monday, Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne spelled out
the new policy in an opinion issued in response to a request
from Secretary of State Ken Bennett, seeking clarification in
light of the top court’s ruling.
“Those who registered to vote using the federal form, which
does not require evidence of citizenship, should not vote in
state elections or sign petitions,” Horne, a Republican,
concluded in the 16-page opinion.
But he said the rules outlined in the Arizona voter
registration measure, Proposition 200, were still valid for
local elections.
“Persons seeking to register to vote must comply with
Proposition 200’s evidence of citizenship requirement in order
to become … eligible to vote in state and local elections and
to sign candidates, initiative, referendum or recall petitions,”
he added.
Arizona’s Republican leadership has taken a tough stance on
illegal immigration. In 2010, Governor Jan Brewer signed a state
law requiring police to question about their immigration status
people that they stop and suspect of being in the country
illegally.
Backers of Proposition 200, passed by voters in 2004, said
the law was needed to fight voter fraud, although opponents said
it unfairly deterred Latinos and Native Americans from
registering to vote, as they sometimes struggled to come up with
the required citizenship proofs.
State Democrats, who countered that Republicans who
championed the measures aimed to make it harder for minority
voters who tend to vote Democratic to cast ballots, said Horne’s
opinion tested “absurdity and vindictiveness.”
“By recommending a two-track voting system, Horne will be
creating a group of second-class voters in Arizona,” DJ Quinlan,
the executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party, said in
a statement.
“This will also create another confusing layer of
bureaucracy to our voting system and potentially cost Arizona
taxpayers millions of dollars.”
The only federal offices that will appear on Arizona ballots
next year will be seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in
the midterm congressional elections.
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Walsh)
