Arizona Legislature Heads To Ninth Circuit To Defend Election Integrity

Arizona House Speaker Steve Montenegro and Senate President Warren Petersen are heading to court to strengthen election integrity across the nation by supporting voter identification requirements currently under litigation in Idaho.

The Arizona Legislature, alongside Montana and 18 other states, filed a legal brief at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals supporting Idaho’s voter ID law, which excludes student ID cards as an acceptable form of identification at the polls.

The case stems from a 2023 law enacted by the State of Idaho prohibiting high school and higher education student IDs as accepted forms of identification when registering to vote and cast a ballot. Two far-left special interest groups sued in an attempt to block the law from being implemented, but the case was dismissed. Since then, an appeal has been filed in an effort to overturn the law.

In the brief, defendants argued there was no evidence that the Idaho Legislature was attempting to deprive young people of the right to vote by not including student IDs as acceptable forms of voter identification. Additionally, they also argue the law is not a violation of the 26th amendment because no evidence has been presented demonstrating race, age, or gender were intentionally impacted by Idaho’s decision to disallow student ID as voter identification.

“Arizona is proud to stand with Idaho and any state that chooses to enact reasonable protections like voter ID,” said Montenegro. “Student IDs vary widely in design and security features. States have every right to require more reliable documentation to ensure only eligible voters are casting ballots.”

In the opinion of Montenegro and Petersen, the brief challenges the plaintiffs’ attempt to use the courts to override neutral, democratically enacted laws. It emphasizes the Supreme Court’s repeated affirmation of states’ authority to regulate elections and the importance of applying a strong presumption of legislative good faith. The brief also argues that courts should not treat political or ideological motives as evidence of discriminatory intent and should not rely on isolated statements by individual lawmakers to invalidate entire legislative acts.

“Arizona’s election laws are under constant attack by activists who want to chip away at basic security measures. If we don’t fight back, we risk undermining public confidence in our elections,” Montenegro added. “Every eligible voter should be able to vote—and every illegal vote must be prevented.”

“Every state has an absolute right to implement voter ID laws through its legislature,” said Petersen. “Arizona has been at the forefront of this movement to ensure the integrity of our elections’ process through the requirement that citizens must produce voter ID when registering and when appearing to vote. Prevention is better than prosecution. A state is not required to wait until fraud occurs in order to take action to ensure fraud is prevented. The Arizona Legislature stands with Idaho and supports its rights to determine what constitutes acceptable forms of identification to register and to vote.”