Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals says Arizona and Kansas cannot force proof-of-citizenship requirements on the federal voter registration form
November 7, 2014
In a major victory for voting rights, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has unanimously ruled that Arizona and Kansas cannot force the Election Assistance Commission to alter the federal voter registration form to require documentary proof-of-citizenship.
To help make voting more accessible to millions of Americans, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) created a simple federal voter registration form that all states subject to the NVRA must accept and use. Following the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc. (ITCA), in which the Court found that the NVRA preempts state law, Kansas and Arizona sued The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to add those states’ documentary proof-of-citizenship requirements to the form’s state-specific instructions.
In March 2014, the U.S. District Court ruled that the EAC must fulfill the request from Kansas and Arizona. The EAC and a number of civil rights groups—including Project Vote, the League of Women Voters, Common Cause, Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, and others—filed to appeal.
Today, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the District Court’s decision, and ruled that Arizona and Kansas cannot require the EAC to add documentary proof of citizenship to the federal form. This means that eligible residents can continue to use the federal form to register to vote in those states without unnecessary barriers.
“We are compelled by ITCA to conclude that the NVRA preempts Arizona’s and Kansas’ state laws insofar as they require Federal Form applicants to provide documentary evidence of citizenship to vote in federal elections,” the ruling states. “Accordingly, we hold that the EAC is not compulsorily mandated to approve state-requested changes to the Federal Form.”
Furthermore, the Court found that Arizona and Kansas “have not provided substantial evidence of noncitizens registering to vote using the Federal Form.” The court concluded that the EAC’s January decision to reject Kansas and Arizona’s requests was justified by the record, and also rejected the states’ constitutional claims.
Project Vote was represented in the case by election counsel Michelle Kanter Cohen, and the law firms of Arnold and Porter LLP and the Thompson Law Firm LLC.”
“As Arizona and Kansas have proven by disenfranchising thousands of their eligible citizens, the real effect of proof-of-citizenship laws is to limit who can vote,” says Kanter Cohen. “We are thrilled that this ruling affirms the authority of the NVRA, and prevents Arizona and Kansas from erecting the very sorts of hurdles to voting that the law was designed to remove.”
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For more information and interviews, please contact Michael McDunnah at 202-905-1397 or mmcdunnah@projectvote.org.