24 States Defend Voter Integrity, Urge Supreme Court to Uphold AZ’s Proof of Citizenship Law

A group of 24 states has banded together to support Arizona’s efforts to uphold its voter registration proof-of-citizenship requirements.

This action follows a controversial decision by a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court on August 1, which invalidated Arizona’s law mandating proof of citizenship for federal election voting.

The ruling allows individuals to register using a state form without providing documentation of their citizenship status, raising concerns about potential voter fraud.

Arizona’s law, implemented in 2022, aimed to prevent non-citizens from voting by requiring proof of citizenship for state voter registration.

While an initial emergency stay had upheld these measures, the recent ruling is seen by many as a significant setback for election security.

“This is just another example of why the radical Ninth Circuit is the most overturned circuit in the nation,” said Senate President Warren Petersen.

“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. We will seek assistance from the Supreme Court to ensure only American citizens are voting in our elections. If this principle is not followed, democracy as we know it, and as our Founding Fathers intended, is in jeopardy.”

The Republican National Committee (RNC) and Republican lawmakers have united in filing a brief with the Supreme Court to revive crucial provisions of Arizona’s law.

Their argument is that the lower court’s ruling undermines the rights of lawful voters and poses a threat to the integrity of electoral results.

“The RNC has an interest in having its members’ rights as voters not undermined by eleventh-hour changes to election laws,” they stated in their brief.

On Thursday, a coalition comprising 24 states and led by Kansas Attorney General Kris W. Kobach and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, submitted an amicus brief to the highest court in the country, advocating for the preservation of Arizona’s authority to implement voter integrity measures that verify the eligibility of voters as U.S. citizens.

The states that have joined the coalition to support Arizona’s proof of citizenship law in the Supreme Court are:

1. Kansas
2. West Virginia
3. Alabama
4. Alaska
5. Arkansas
6. Florida
7. Georgia
8. Idaho
9. Indiana
10. Iowa
11. Kentucky
12. Louisiana
13. Missouri
14. Montana
15. Nebraska
16. New Hampshire
17. North Dakota
18. Ohio
19. Oklahoma
20. South Carolina
21. South Dakota
22. Texas
23. Utah
24. Virginia​

The brief asserts that Arizona has the authority to uphold its voter qualification laws, such as the requirement for proof of citizenship, without being preempted by the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).

The coalition maintains that the state’s constitutional right to establish voter qualifications, including the citizenship requirement, should not be superseded by federal mandates and is essential to safeguarding election integrity.

As part of its broader efforts to bolster election security, Arizona’s law prohibits individuals who cannot provide evidence of citizenship from registering to vote in state and presidential elections. It also limits mail-in voting to those whose citizenship has been verified.

These provisions were challenged in federal court, where a district judge determined that they were overridden by the NVRA.

Nevertheless, the coalition of states argues that this ruling undermines state sovereignty and their constitutional right to oversee their own elections. The brief underscores the risks associated with non-citizen voting, emphasizing that even a small number of illegal votes can influence the outcome of closely contested elections, citing the 2008 Minnesota Senate race as a compelling example.

“Voting by non-citizens, both legal and illegal, is real. The typical rejoinder is to claim that few non-citizens vote. On its own terms, though, the answer at least acknowledges that the problem persists. But it also ignores that even small voting blocs can have outsized effects on electoral outcomes. That effect is most obvious in local elections. But non-citizen voting also has national effects. Al Franken, for example, won his Senate seat in Minnesota in 2008 by 312 votes—an amount small enough that voting by aliens likely decided the election,” according to the brief.

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