The Democratic National Committee and the Arizona Democratic Party are planning a lawsuit over a law in Arizona that requires further proof of citizenship to register to vote.
What is this law? Arizona's governor, a Republican, signed a law last month that tightens proof of citizenship requirements to vote in the state, which is already required for elections there.
The Arizona Republic has some information on the March law.
"Arizona currently has about 31,000 people registered as federal-only voters. Under the new law, applications for federal forms will be scrutinized by the state for evidence of citizenship. If it was not provided, the person couldn’t vote in presidential elections or vote by mail, and officials would have to turn the names of noncitizens who attempted to register over to the state Attorney General's Office for possible prosecution."
We have been here before. The state lost a Supreme Court case in which they tried to enforce citizenship check rules for federal-only voters who register with a form provided by the 1993 National Voting registration act.
What is their complaint? The 1993 law creates a split system for federal-only voters and imposes added burdens on federal voters, according to the DNC. It makes claims about due process.
An attorney for the committee laid out the case in a notice sent to state officials, which they are required to send at least 90 days before filing legal action under the 1993 law that was first obtained by POLITICO.
The DNC is taking action to ensure that all eligible Arizona voters are given an equal opportunity to participate.
How is this run-around of Congress election authority? Voters who register with the federal form could be disqualified from voting in the presidential election because of the 1993 law.
There are clauses in the Constitution that dictate electoral college electors and congressional elections. Arizona Republicans are trying to drive a wedge between them, which is atypical for states to harmonize election laws.
That wedge is at the center of the independent legislature theory, a once-fringe legal theory that is increasingly en vogue among Republicans that would bolster the role of state legislatures in elections, at the expense of state courts, governors and possibly Congress.
The state is trying to set up a fight about the scope of Congress's power over presidential elections.
An earlier version of the Minute wrongly attributed the analysis to a different election law expert.
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