Republicans ask Supreme Court to block 40K Arizona voters from presidential election

PHOENIX (AZFamily)— The Republican National Committee is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block about 40,000 registered voters in Arizona from casting a ballot for president in November.

The RNC wants the Supreme Court to issue an emergency ruling in the case by Thursday before counties start printing ballots.

The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office said the ruling could affect about 41,000 thousand voters, largely service members, students and Native Americans who did not have birth certificates when they registered to vote.

Less than 11,000 votes decided Arizona’s last presidential election.

The lawsuit concerns a 2022 law passed by the Republican-controlled legislature, but the case has its roots in 2004, when Arizona voters passed Proposition 200.

The law required Arizonans to show “documentary proof” of their citizenship before registering to vote.

Critics immediately argued the law conflicted with federal law, and there have been a series of legal fights since.

The National Voter Registration Act, which requires all states to register voters who complete a standardized form, is at the core of these lawsuits.

The form asks voters to swear they are citizens under penalty of perjury, but it doesn’t require them to submit proof.

After an initial round of lawsuits culminating in a Supreme Court ruling in 2013, Arizona agreed to partially register voters who complete the form without documentary proof of citizenship.

Those voters could only cast ballots in federal elections, not state or local races.

The issue remerged in 2022 after the Republican-controlled state legislature passed another law banning these “federal only” voters from casting a ballot for president or voting by mail.

Lower courts ruled against the 2022 law, but the RNC filed an appeal this month, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.

The RNC argued federal rules cannot supersede “the Arizona Legislature’s sovereign authority to determine the qualifications of voters.”

“I think this is people trying to make sure that we trust the elections,” said GOP political strategist Chad Heywood. “The voters in Arizona have already spoken on these issues. When you put them in front of the voters, they’re overwhelming that they want proof of citizenship for people to be able to vote in any fashion.”

Attorneys for the Biden Administration urged the Supreme Court to reject the RNC’s appeal, saying, “judicial intervention at this stage would undermine the orderly administration of the election, risking the disfranchisement of thousands of voters who have already registered to vote using the federal form.”

The 2022 law has never taken effect, but the RNC argues it should.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, representing the Biden Administration, wrote that a sudden change so close to the election would result in “confusion and chaos.”

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