From today’s Los Angeles Times:
The Republican National Committee is urging the Supreme Court to intervene in an Arizona election dispute this week and block up to 40,000 of the state’s registered voters from casting ballots in the presidential race.
Republican state lawmakers say these voters did not provide proof of their citizenship when they were registered and now they should be barred from voting in person or by mail.
Although Congress made it easier for Americans to register to vote, those federal rules cannot override “the Arizona Legislature’s sovereign authority to determine the qualifications of voters and structure participation in its elections,” they said in an emergency appeal filed Aug. 9.
The fast-track appeal may signal whether the conservative court is ready to intervene in partisan election disputes. The Arizona Republicans asked for a decision by Thursday because counties will soon begin to print ballots.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said the appeal should be rejected.
“There is no evidence of fraud and undocumented voting. The 2024 election is weeks away and acting now to restrict the voting rights of a large group of Arizona’s voters is undemocratic,” he said in a statement.
Many of the affected voters are “service members, students and Native Americans who did not have birth certificates while registering,” Fontes added.
On Friday, Biden administration lawyers also urged the court to turn down the appeal. “Thousands of voters have already registered to vote by filing the federal form without accompanying documentary proof of citizenship,” said Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar. “Judicial intervention at this stage would produce unnecessary confusion and chaos on the cusp of an election.”
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