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2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumSeparate and Unequal Voting in Arizona and Kansas
Separate and Unequal Voting in Arizona and Kansas
In its 2013 decision in Arizona v. The Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that Arizonas proof of citizenship law for voter registration violated the 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).
In 2004, Arizona voters approved Proposition 200, a stringent anti-immigration law that included provisions requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and government-issued photo ID to cast a ballot. Last year, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit blocked the proof of citizenship requirement, which it said violated the NVRA. Under the 1993 act, which drastically expanded voter access by allowing registration at public facilities like the DMV, those using a federal form to register to vote must affirm, under penalty of perjury, that they are US citizens. Twenty-eight million people used that federal form to register to vote in 2008. Arizonas law, the court concluded, violated the NVRA by requiring additional documentation, such as a drivers license, birth certificate, passport or tribal forms. According to a 2006 study by the Brennan Center for Justice, at least 7 percent of eligible voters do not have ready access to the documents needed to prove citizenship. The Supreme Court affirmed the lower court ruling, finding that states like Arizona could not reject applicants who registered using the NVRA form.
Now Arizona and Kansaswhich passed a similar proof-of-citizenship law in 2011are arguing that the Supreme Courts decision applies only to federal elections and that those who register using the federal form cannot vote in state and local elections. The two states have sued the Election Assistance Commission and are setting up a two-tiered system of voter registration, which could disenfranchise thousands of voters and infringe on state and federal law.
The tactics of Arizona and Kansas recall the days of segregation and the Supreme Courts 1896 separate but equal ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson. These dual registration systems have a really ugly racial history, says Dale Ho, director of the ACLUs Voting Rights Project. They were set up after Reconstruction alongside poll taxes, literacy tests and all the other devices that were used to disenfranchise African-American voters.
-snip-
Full article here: http://www.thenation.com/blog/176650/separate-and-unequal-voting-arizona-and-kansas#
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Separate and Unequal Voting in Arizona and Kansas (Original Post)
Tx4obama
Oct 2013
OP
rocktivity
(44,580 posts)1. State laws that violate Federal laws
are unconstitutional by default.
rocktivity
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)2. problem is those elected using disenfranchise tactics stay elected and in office for years.
That's the R way. Get elected any way you can. Gerrymander, exclude as many opposition votes as you can, even cheat. Once elected we'll never get rid of them.