On Monday, the Arizona House passed a bill, HB 2492, sponsored by Rep. Jake Hoffman, that specifies that to be qualified to register to vote in Arizona a resident must provide satisfactory evidence of citizenship.
Currently, a person who is otherwise eligible to vote in Arizona but has not submitted proof of citizenship is allowed to vote in federal elections, becoming known as a “federal-only” voter, as previously reported in the Arizona Daily Independent.
“Non-citizens should never be allowed to vote in American elections, yet shockingly nearly 12,000 people voted in the 2020 general election for federal office without any proof of U.S. citizenship,” Rep. Hoffman told the Arizona Daily Independent. “For years we’ve heard Democrats spin wild conspiracy theories about foreign influence on our elections, but today when they had the chance to prevent it, every single Democrat voted against preventing non-citizens from influencing our elections.”
“Republicans at the Capitol are fighting like hell to protect the integrity of Arizona’s elections with bills like HB2492, so that voters can have confidence that every legally cast ballot matters,” said Hoffman.
As Hoffman argued, over 11,600 federal-only ballots were cast in Arizona’s 2020 General Election, the largest number of federal ballots cast in an Arizona election.
“Federal races have the largest impact on US immigration and border policy, as seen with our current administration. Under no circumstance should a non-citizen have any influence over Federal elections,” said Shelby Busch, co-founder of We the People AZ Alliance, a grass roots political action committee committed to election integrity.
Under HB2492, in order to register to vote, a person must provide:
a) Proof of location of residence;
b) The date and place of birth; and
c) A mark in the “yes” box next to the question regarding citizenship.