Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Will more states follow Arizona’s lead on voter registration laws?

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey

Editor's note: This story was updated with information about a lawsuit filed Thursday in Arizona.

When Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law proof-of-citizenship voting requirements, he set the stage for another federal court battle on the issue. Legislators in other states have considered similar legislation but so far none have advanced as far as Arizona’s changes.

The new law retroactively requires all voters to provide proof of citizenship, even those who are already registered to cast ballots in the state, updating a 2004 provision that only put that burden on new voters.

Opponents of the new law say as many as 190,000 people may be removed from the voter rolls because no such requirement existed when they registered. They would need to re-register, but might not be aware of the change in their status.

Lawmakers in a handful of other states also have been pushing voter registration changes tied to citizenship this year.


This isn’t a new fight

Under federal law, people registering to vote must attest that they are citizens, but they are not required to provide any proof of their status. States may impose their own citizenship requirements for state and local elections, and a few have done so but only Arizona has put it into practice.

Since 2004, Arizona has required people registered to vote to include proof of citizenship, but the Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that the state cannot require such documentation from people who use the federal voter registration form. Therefore, Arizonans who use the federal form may not vote in state and local elections.

An attorney for the state House told lawmakers the new requirements violate federal law, and a lawsuit was filed Thursday morning in U.S. District Court.

"This is an obvious attempt by Arizona Republicans to limit access to voting, but we’ll fight to ensure that no voter is wrongly disenfranchised," said Marc Elias, a Democratic lawyer who filed the case on behalf of the civic engagmeent group Mi Familia Vota.

In 2016, Alabama, Georgia and Kansas asked the Election Assistance Commission to add a proof-of-citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form. The case went to federal court, which put a stop to the request.

Proponents of requiring documentary proof of citizenship say such laws are critical to fending off voter fraud, even though instances of illegal voting are rare and do not impact election outcomes.

Opponents say these laws can actually prevent some eligible citizens from voting because they may not possess the required documentation.

“Those most likely to be affected by these laws are students, the elderly, the disabled, low-income individuals, the homeless, and naturalized citizens,” Stuart Naifeh, a former senior counsel at the liberal think tank Demos, wrote in 2014. Aside from these narrow populations, across the board, Native Americans, African Americans and members of other historically disadvantaged and disenfranchised groups are also less likely to have, or have ready access to, documents that will satisfy documentary proof-of-citizenship requirements.”

Other bills being considered

In Mississippi, Republican lawmakers had been on the verge of advancing legislation that would have put into place aggressive measures to purge voter rolls of noncitizens. But just prior to a vote in the state House, Republicans amended the bill to soften the language and make it harder to cancel a voter’s registration.

When GOP lawmakers determined the bill would be bad for democracy, they agreed to the change, according to the Clarion Ledger.

That bill has been passed by both chambers and awaits the governor’s signature.

In Idaho, the House has passed a bill that would require people registering to vote on Election Day to provide proof of citizenship. Voter registration in Idaho requires a driver’s license or Social Security number, but a license can be obtained by non-citizens. The state enacted a law in March that adds a “citizenship” notation to driver’s licenses.

In 2020, more than 87,000 people registered to vote on Election Day in Idaho, accounting for approximately 10 percent of the ballots cast.

The bill was passed by the House on March 14 and has been referred to a Senate committee for consideration.

Legislators in at least two other states have attempted to impose new citizenship requirements, but their proposals did not advance.

In Oklahoma, language was removed from a bill that would have required all registered voters to re-register and provide proof of U.S. citizenship. Anyone who did not do so would only be permitted to vote in federal elections Election Secretary Paul Ziriax convinced lawmakers that such a requirement would be expensive, possibly unconstitutional and a heavy burden on voters, according to Oklahoma Watch.

And in Washington, a bill to require all registered voters to provide proof of citizenship failed to advance out of a House committee.

Other bills have been introduced in Louisiana, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, according to the Voting Rights Lab's legislation tracker.

Read More

Connecticut: Democracy, Innovation, and Economic Resilience

The 50: Connecticut

Credit: Hugo Balta

Connecticut: Democracy, Innovation, and Economic Resilience

The 50 is a four-year multimedia project in which the Fulcrum visits different communities across all 50 states to learn what motivated them to vote in the 2024 presidential election and see how the Donald Trump administration is meeting those concerns and hopes.

Hartford, Connecticut, stands as a living testament to American democracy, ingenuity, and resilience. As the state’s capital, it’s home to cultural landmarks like the Mark Twain House & Museum, where Twain penned The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, embodying the spirit of self-governance and creative daring that defines the region.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hand blocking someone speaking

The Third Way has recently released a memo stating that the “stampede away from the Democratic Party” is partly a result of the language and rhetoric it uses.

Westend61/Getty Images

To Protect Democracy, Democrats Should Pay Attention to the Third Way’s List of ‘Offensive’ Words

More than fifty years ago, comedian George Carlin delivered a monologue entitled Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television.” It was a tribute to the legendary Lenny Bruce, whose “nine dirty words” performance led to his arrest and his banning from many places.

His seven words were “p—, f—, c—, c———, m———–, and t—.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Fox News’ Selective Silence: How Trump’s Worst Moments Vanish From Coverage
Why Fox News’ settlement with Dominion Voting Systems is good news for all media outlets
Getty Images

Fox News’ Selective Silence: How Trump’s Worst Moments Vanish From Coverage

Last week, the ultraconservative news outlet, NewsMax, reached a $73 million settlement with the voting machine company, Dominion, in essence, admitting that they lied in their reporting about the use of their voting machines to “rig” or distort the 2020 presidential election. Not exactly shocking news, since five years later, there is no credible evidence to suggest any malfeasance regarding the 2020 election. To viewers of conservative media, such as Fox News, this might have shaken a fully embraced conspiracy theory. Except it didn’t, because those viewers haven’t seen it.

Many people have a hard time understanding why Trump enjoys so much support, given his outrageous statements and damaging public policy pursuits. Part of the answer is due to Fox News’ apparent censoring of stories that might be deemed negative to Trump. During the past five years, I’ve tracked dozens of examples of news stories that cast Donald Trump in a negative light, including statements by Trump himself, which would make a rational person cringe. Yet, Fox News has methodically censored these stories, only conveying rosy news that draws its top ratings.

Keep ReadingShow less
U.S. Flag / artificial intelligence / technology / congress / ai

The age of AI warrants asking if the means still further the ends—specifically, individual liberty and collective prosperity.

Getty Images, Douglas Rissing

Liberty and the General Welfare in the Age of AI

If the means justify the ends, we’d still be operating under the Articles of Confederation. The Founders understood that the means—the governmental structure itself—must always serve the ends of liberty and prosperity. When the means no longer served those ends, they experimented with yet another design for their government—they did expect it to be the last.

The age of AI warrants asking if the means still further the ends—specifically, individual liberty and collective prosperity. Both of those goals were top of mind for early Americans. They demanded the Bill of Rights to protect the former, and they identified the latter—namely, the general welfare—as the animating purpose for the government. Both of those goals are being challenged by constitutional doctrines that do not align with AI development or even undermine it. A full review of those doctrines could fill a book (and perhaps one day it will). For now, however, I’m just going to raise two.

Keep ReadingShow less