Arizona’s Governor on Thursday signed a bill into law that aims to reinforce election integrity with new requirements to make certain that only American citizens vote in elections held in Arizona. The procedure, House Bill 2492, calls for voters in Arizona to provide evidence of citizenship and also residency to be eligible to vote.
Under the brand-new law, if region recorders are located to have knowingly approved a citizen enrollment application that doesn’t have enough proof of citizenship, they face a class 6 felony.
“Election integrity means counting every lawful vote and prohibiting any attempt to illegally cast a vote,” Gov. Doug Ducey said in a letter (pdf) to Secretary of State Katie Hobbs explaining his support for the legislation. He said the bill “is a balanced approach that honors Arizona’s history of making voting accessible without sacrificing security in our elections.”
In Arizona, the Republican Party manages the governorship and also both chambers of the state’s legislature. The bill passed the legislature on March 23.
Hobbs, a Democrat that is running for guv of Arizona, informed Ducey to veto the bill after legislators passed the measure. She said on Twitter on March 23 that the GOP-backed bill “creates new, unnecessary barriers for people registering to vote.”
Today, the Arizona Legislature passed HB2492 after being advised by their own attorneys that the bill violates federal law. The bill creates new, unnecessary barriers for people registering to vote.
Governor Ducey should veto this bill.
— Secretary Katie Hobbs (@SecretaryHobbs) March 23, 2022
Various other state Democrats say the measure becomes part of an effort to subdue ballot in the battlefield state.
State Rep. Jake Hoffman, the bill’s enroller, claimed the finalizing into regulation of HB 2492 is “a giant step toward ensuring elections are easy, convenient, and secure in our state.”
“HB 2492 is an incredibly well-crafted piece of legislation that is on sound legal footing and broadly supported by voters of all political parties. I am confident that should Democrats challenge HB 2492 in court it will only serve to further reinforce its clear constitutionality,” he said in a statement (pdf) Thursday.
Federal Only Voters In Arizona
Ducey noted in his letter to Hobbs, “Federal law prohibits non-citizens from voting in federal elections. Arizona law prohibits non-citizens from voting for all state and local offices, and requires proof of citizenship. H.B. 2492 provides clarity to Arizona law on how officials process federal form voter registration applications that lack evidence of citizenship.”
The Supreme Court ruled in 2013 (pdf) that Arizona can continue calling for proof of citizenship in its state political elections, but have to approve federal forms to register Arizona voters for government political elections.
The federal forms ask voters to state that they are united state residents but don’t call for evidence of citizenship. These voters, referred to as Federal Just Voters because they are only eligible for casting a ballot in federal elections, will certainly now be needed under H.B. 2492 to supply evidence of citizenship in order to enact governmental political elections or vote by mail. They could still elect in legislative elections at the surveys.
Ducey said there’s been a growing variety of registrants that have actually made use of the federal type because 2014. He said 21 citizens statewide made use of that type to register to elect in the primary political election in 2014, but by the 2020 general political election, there were greater than 11,600 federal-only citizens in Arizona that elected without giving proof of citizenship.
“In Maricopa County alone, there are currently 13,042 active registered voters who have not provided evidence of citizenship to vote through use of the federal form,” according to Ducey’s office.
Presently, there are approximately 31,500 federal-only voters in Arizona.
Ducey recognized that in 2004, when Arizona passed Proposition 200, which required proof of citizenship to vote, the need exempted people who were currently signed up to elect before the proposal’s passage. Ducey informed Hobbs that H.B. 2492 “does not disturb the risk-free harbor granted to Arizona voters who signed up to vote before Prop 200’s flow.”
H.B. 2492 also calls for that area records examine appropriate databases to assist in better maintaining citizen rolls.
The brand-new regulation additionally requires Arizona’s secretary of state as well as each area recorder to offer the Arizona chief law officer details of all people who registered to vote however really did not give adequate evidence of citizenship, so the AG has enough info to examine whether a person who registered with the federal form is a non-citizen.
H/T The Epoch Times
