USA Today/Gannett: Facing DOJ lawsuit, Arizona could be model for states to require proof of citizenship to vote

Lawmakers in as many as one in five states have considered legislation to require voters show proof of citizenship – a requirement that drew a federal lawsuit this week and that voting access advocates worry could disenfranchise millions of voters.

A new Arizona law that Gov. Doug Ducey hailed as a victory for “election integrity” – and that could be a model for similar restrictions across the country – now is being challenged as a “textbook violation” of federal law.

The Justice Department on Tuesday sued the state to stop the law requiring voters to provide documented proof of citizenship from going into effect in January 2023, saying it could disenfranchise thousands of voters.

Voting rights advocates say requiring documented proof of citizenship hurts voters without the resources or time to navigate complicated bureaucracies that warehouse documents.

And the electoral consequences, they say, could be significant in places where margins are razor-thin. President Joe Biden beat former President Donald Trump by 10,457 votes in Arizona, where about 4.3 million voters are registered.

The number of voters who could be impacted by widespread adoption of similar laws is unclear. The Justice Department’s lawsuit says that “thousands” would be impacted by Arizona’s law, but voting access advocates say millions might be disenfranchised around the country if other states follow suit. …

Its roots, though, run deeper than the claims of a stolen 2020 election that have seeded much of the movement to restrict voting. Voter fraud is exceedingly rare, including in Arizona, where prosecuted election crimes were less than 0.0001% of votes cast over a decade, according to the Arizona Republic.

“What’s happening is that mechanisms of voter suppression are getting more sophisticated and more tailored,” said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at the good government group Common Cause. …

That isn’t limited to new Americans. People who were born at home or on reservations or those whose documents were lost in natural disasters could have their right to vote jeopardized by similar laws, Albert said.

Accessing those documents can require navigating cumbersome processes and traveling to small government offices to get copies, she said.

“If you are working an hourly job and are the main breadwinner of your family, you can’t go to another state to look at how to go about getting a copy of your birth certificate,” Albert said.

While Arizona and Mississippi so far are the only states to adopt proof of citizenship requirements, Voting Rights Lab found 25 pieces of legislation proposed with similar provisions in 10 states, including Pennsylvania, Idaho and New York.

“We know that bad efforts spread quickly as other states see the success of voter suppression in other states,” Albert said.