The GOP War on Voting – dual election systems

Election rules in the states of Kansas and Arizona are set to disenfranchise thousands of American citizens in coming weeks from casting ballots in state primaries, even though the federal government allows them to vote in congressional races. The Wall Street Journal reports Kansas, Arizona Require Proof of Citizenship for Voting:

The [dual election] system is the result of a growing battle between federal officials and a handful of states over the necessity of verifying that a newly registered voter is a U.S. citizen.

Kansas and Arizona say the federal registration process doesn’t rigorously check citizenship. They have established their own verification systems and are barring people who register using the federal system from voting this month for such offices as governor and local posts.

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Several states are closely watching a pending federal court case that has produced the unusual balloting in Kansas and Arizona. Georgia and Alabama are looking to implement proof-of-citizenship laws that have already passed, while lawmakers in states such as South Carolina and Oklahoma have considered adding such rules.

NOTE: The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments on Monday, August 25, after the Kansas primary election, and the day before the Arizona primary election.

“If Arizona and Kansas succeed, I have no doubt that this will continue to be an agenda item, and it will be an ongoing battle in many states,” said Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice, who represents the League of Women Voters in opposition to the Arizona and Kansas laws.

Federal registration forms require that a person attest to being a U.S. citizen under penalty of perjury, but don’t require documentation. Kansas and Arizona argue the federal government should amend its form to instruct users of some states’ additional proof-of-citizenship requirements.

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission denied the states’ request, arguing it hinders the federal goal of increasing voter registration. Earlier this year, a U.S. District Court judge in Kansas said the federal agency should add the language. The ruling has been stayed as the federal government challenges it at the U.S Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, where arguments are scheduled for later this month.

Mr. Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, is being challenged in Tuesday’s primary by fellow Republican Scott Morgan, who sees the verification rule as overly burdensome.

Mr. Kobach’s office said about 200 voters who registered to vote in Tuesday’s primary using the federal process would have their votes counted only for federal offices. An additional 18,400 people who registered through the state form would be barred from voting entirely because they haven’t yet shown a proof of citizenship such as a birth certificate or passport to election officials. That amounts to about 17% of all new registrations since the law went into effect last year.

In Arizona, election officials estimate 1,500 voters will have to use a special ballot with only federal races for the state primaries on Aug. 26. Voters there approved a proof-of-citizenship requirement a decade ago, after which election officials started to reject federal voter-registration forms if citizenship documents weren’t provided. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 rejected the approach, leading Arizona to seek the new state-specific language on the federal voter-registration form.

For Arizona election officials, the hope is the two-ballot system is temporary.

To deny any American citizen their franchise to vote is a deprivation of the privileges and immunities of U.S. citizens under the 14th Amendment, and a violation of equal protection under the 14th Amendment. It is unconstitutional, despite what Secretary of State Kris Kobach (KS) and Ken Bennett (AZ) assert.

As I have previously explained, the dual election system that Secretary Bennett is implementing is based upon an Attorney General Opinion from Tom “banned for life by the SEC” Horne, Arizona’s poster boy for political corruption. Read AG Opinion No. 113-011 Here (.pdf).

There is nothing in Arizona statutory law which authorizes a dual election system. There is no fair reading of Arizona’s election law statutes that in any way authorizes the Secretary of State, acting by executive fiat without legislative authority, to adopt the dual election system that Ken Bennett is imposing in this election, for the very first time.

The fact that a Kansas judge approves dual election system in Kansas is not determinative of Arizona law. The ACLU was looking for an appropriate plaintiff to file a lawsuit in Arizona, but that legal challenge was never filed.

Now we have to wait on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, and eventually the U.S. Supreme Court where Justice Antonin Scalia, who concocted this convoluted appeal process, is salivating over the opportunity to strike down another federal protection in voting rights law.