REFERENCE TITLE: proof of citizenship; voter registration

State of Arizona

House of Representatives

Fifty-seventh Legislature

First Regular Session

2025

HCM 2015

Introduced by

Representatives Kolodin: Carter P, Gillette

A CONCURRENT MEMORIAL

urging the United States Congress and President to enact legislation to include state-specific instructions on the federal voter registration form, including proof of citizenship.

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

To the President and Congress of the United States of America:

Your memorialist respectfully represents:

Whereas, in 1993, the United States Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to increase the number of eligible citizens who register to vote, protect the integrity of the electoral process and ensure that accurate and current voter registration rolls are maintained; and

Whereas, the NVRA created a new federal voter registration form that every state must "accept and use"; and

Whereas, the federal form does not and has never included state-specific instructions, including the requirement to present documented proof of citizenship to register to vote; and

Whereas, article I, section 2 and article I, section 3, United States Constitution, as amended by the seventeenth amendment, has granted states the power to set voter qualifications by linking the qualification to vote for representatives and senators to the qualifications that states set for voting in elections for the most numerous branch of the states' legislatures; and

Whereas, the United States Supreme Court has recognized that "the power to establish voting requirements is of little value without the power to enforce those requirements" and "it would raise serious constitutional doubts if a federal statute precluded a state from obtaining the information necessary to enforce its voter qualifications"; and

Whereas, the Election Assistance Commission has precluded Arizona from "obtaining the information necessary to enforce its voter qualifications" by refusing to include Arizona's proof of citizenship requirement on the federal voter registration form, thereby "rais[ing] serious constitutional doubts"; and

Whereas, Arizona has done all that it can to assert its power to enforce its proof of citizenship requirements consistent with Inter Tribal Council v. Arizona, but has still been constrained from requiring proof of citizenship on the federal form; and

Whereas, it is the position of this state that all of our existing statutes requiring proof of citizenship to vote are constitutional and consistent with the requirements of the NVRA and Inter Tribal Council v. Arizona; and

Whereas, it is the position of this state that the Inter Tribal Council court erred in precluding Arizona from outright requiring proof of citizenship from federal form applicants; and

Whereas, article II, section 1 of the United States Constitution grants states plenary authority to determine the manner of appointing presidential electors; and

Whereas, article I, section 4 of the United States Constitution empowers Congress to "at any time by Law make or alter" the times, places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives and article II, section 1 of the Constitution grants Congress only power to determine the time of choosing electors for presidential elections, yet the NVRA purports to supersede state statutes directing the manner of appointing electors; and

Whereas, since adoption, the NVRA has required states like Arizona to bifurcate our voter registration system to protect our state, local and presidential elections from voters who have not provided proof of citizenship from voting; and

Whereas, the consequence has been an unconstitutional federal takeover of elections requiring states to register voters without proof of citizenship. This has resulted in nearly 50,000 individuals who have not provided proof of citizenship being actively registered to vote in Arizona and tens of thousands of them voting in each election.

Wherefore your memorialist, the House of Representatives of the State of Arizona, the Senate concurring, prays:

1. That the United States Congress immediately pass and the President sign legislation that requires the Election Assistance Commission to include state-specific instructions on the federal voter registration form that encompass all qualifications set by states, including documentary proof of citizenship requirements, and recognize the plenary power of the states over presidential elections, the qualifications to vote and the manner of determining that those qualifications have been met.

2. That the Secretary of State of the State of Arizona transmit copies of this Memorial to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and each Member of Congress from the State of Arizona.