Arizona: Voter Registration Restrictions

Published Date:

July 24, 2024

A complaint on behalf of civic engagement organization Poder Latinx in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, seeking to block a new state law’s arbitrary and vague procedures for investigating the citizenship status of Arizona voters. Poder Latinx works to register and engage Latinx voters in Arizona, and its efforts will be frustrated by a voter registration system that is ever-changing and complicated, and that will baselessly harass naturalized voters.

In February 2024, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona struck down portions of two state laws requiring election officials to investigate the citizenship of Arizona voters and voter registration applicants. Most notably, this ruling prevents election officials from relying on biases and suspicions that a voter is not a U.S. citizen when making voter registration decisions. Citing the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act, the court found that county election officials could not initiate an extra citizenship check based on any “reason to believe” a voter was not a U.S. citizen.

The decision finding the “reason to believe” provision unlawful under the Civil Rights Act is a win for a legal claim uniquely brought by civic engagement organizations Poder Latinx, Chicanos Por La Causa and Chicanos Por La Causa Action Fund.

Fair Elections Center, the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, and the law firm of Arnold & Porter filed a complaint on behalf of civic engagement organization Poder Latinx in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, seeking to block a new state law’s arbitrary and vague procedures for investigating the citizenship status of Arizona voters. Poder Latinx works to register and engage Latinx voters in Arizona, and its efforts will be frustrated by a voter registration system that is ever-changing and complicated, and that will baselessly harass naturalized voters.

The core of this new law, HB 2492 (which will go into effect in January), requires Arizona election officials to conduct open-ended investigations of voter registration status by searching all available federal, state, and local databases for evidence that registration applicants and registered voters lack U.S. citizenship. County recorders are also instructed to reject registration forms and cancel voter registrations based on “information” that the applicant or registered voter “is not a U.S. citizen.” This vague phrase invites rejection or cancellation of voter registration based on any “information” that someone is a noncitizen, regardless of accuracy, and can result in disenfranchisement based on old or obsolete information, or nothing more than a private citizen’s verbal accusation.

LEGAL DOCUMENTS

First Amended Complaint (6.9.22)
Order Denying Motion to Dismiss (2.16.22)
Court’s Amended Order (2.29.24)

PRESS

Press Release — Citizen Engagement Group Seeks to Stop Unconstitutional Voter Registration Procedures (6.9.22)

Arizona: Voter Registration Restrictions

LEGAL DOCUMENTS

PRESS

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