Over the past two days, both the U.S. Supreme Court and the Arizona Supreme Court have issued decisions in cases critical to maintaining the security of Arizona's elections.
On August 21, the Arizona Supreme Court ordered a lower court to examine whether supporters of a ballot initiative for ranked-choice voting had gathered enough valid signatures. Challengers allege that nearly 40,000 duplicate signatures were submitted.
On August 22, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled a lower federal court and allowed part of an Arizona law requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration using a state form to take effect. However, a majority of Justices declined to allow enforcement of another provision requiring proof of citizenship for those registering with a federal form before voting by mail or for president. The lower court found this provision violated the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993.
Zack Smith, Senior Legal Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, commented on these legal developments:
“Congress needs to update the NVRA to make clear that states are not prohibited from seeking proof of citizenship from those who register to vote using the federal voter registration form.
“In fact, given concerns around, and documented instances of non-citizens registering and voting, other states should follow Arizona’s lead and take the commonsense step of requiring proof of citizenship when voters register using a state form. Safe and secure elections where only eligible voters cast ballots should be a bipartisan issue of the utmost importance to everyone. Unfortunately, for many on the Left, that doesn’t seem to be the case.”
Background:
Ranked-choice voting is described as a confusing process that could disenfranchise many voters. Hans von Spakovsky, also from The Heritage Foundation, has explained that ranked-choice voting “is really a scheme to disconnect elections from issues and allow candidates with marginal support from voters to win elections.”
