Preserving the integrity of our election system

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday the 16th day of May, 2024. Thank you for listening to WORLD Radio. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. First up on The World and Everything in It: election integrity.

That requires balancing ballot access with election security. One tool to accomplish that is verification of citizenship.

Last week, House Republicans introduced a bill that would require states to ask for proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections. So what’s it mean for the 2024 election?

BROWN: WORLD’s Washington Bureau Reporter Leo Briceno brings this report.

LEO BRICENO, REPORTER: Arizona, like all states, has a set of criteria for registering first-time voters. Here’s a tutorial their election center provides online.

VOTER EDUCATION SERIES: Registering to vote in Arizona is quick and easy … you must be a citizen of the United States, at least 18 years old by election day…

Federal law prohibits non-citizens from voting in the United States, but how can states be sure that voters actually are citizens?

Arizona requires registering voters to provide some sort of documented proof of citizenship. That can look like a passport, an in-state driver’s license, a birth certificate, or the like. Kansas has a similar law, and Tennessee is considering one, as well.

But those laws only apply to in-state contests. What about national elections?

PBS: Today, Supreme court arguments pitted a national law against the state law, Arizona's 2004 voter registration statute.

Arizona used to have a law requiring proof of citizenship as part of voter registration, but the U.S. Supreme Court struck it down in 2013 saying it violated the National Voter Registration Act.

Then in 2022, Arizona tried again with a different approach. Instead of passing the requirement as a ballot measure, the state passed the bill through the state legislature.

Here’s Doug Ducey, Governor of Arizona back in 2022.

DOUG DUCEY: We think it’s good legislation. We think it protects the voters and protects citizens to ensure and not dilute their vote. And if someone on the left wants to challenge it, have at it.

Well, his law was challenged and has never gone into effect. The case is before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Many opponents of Arizona’s law believe it runs counter to the National Voter Registration Act—the law that places restrictions on what kind of information states can request while registering voters.

Back in Washington, House Republicans don’t think proof of citizenship should be a controversial requirement.

MIKE JOHNSON: We are here this morning for a very important reason as you all know. There is currently an unprecedented and a clear and present danger to the integrity of our election system. And that is the threat of non-citizens and illegal aliens voting in our elections.

That’s U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson last week as he unveiled the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility or the SAVE Act. It’s the most recent effort by conservative lawmakers to shore up federal voting requirements ahead of the 2024 presidential elections.

Congressman Chip Roy from Texas believes that if states can’t really enforce the law against non-citizen voting, what good is that requirement?

CHIP ROY: We’re here for the simple proposition supported by the vast majority of the American people that only citizens of the United States should vote, that we should have documentary proof, that we should have a system to guarantee that only citizens of the United States vote in federal elections where we have the clear authority under the constitution of the United States and our laws—as congress—to set the terms of those elections. That is what we are doing.

The bill would require states to verify proof of citizenship before registering voters to participate in federal elections. If someone registering cannot provide proof of citizenship through the forms of documentation laid out in the bill, states would create processes to verify citizenship by other means, supported by a signed affidavit of a state official. The bill also makes it a crime to assist in fraudulent voter registration.

Republican Senator Mike Lee from Utah supports the bill.

MIKE LEE: It’s legislation that really ought to pass unanimously in both houses of Congress very, very quickly. Because the only reason to oppose this that I can think of would be if you’re comfortable with or somehow even want non-citizens to vote. And non-citizens, in some cases, to influence the outcome of elections and make them different.

Critics of the bill say that the threat of non-citizen voting isn’t as large as Republicans are making it out to be. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based out of Washington, D.C., found just 24 convictions for noncitizen voting between 2003 and 2022.

All the same, House Republicans continue to look at reforms at the federal level, and a handful of states will put the issue before voters this November. Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Wisconsin all have ballot measures asking if the voters want to require proof of citizenship in order to vote.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno.

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