Supreme Court takes up dispute over Arizona voting restrictions

Washington — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether federal law bars Arizona from imposing tightened voting rules, including a measure that requires documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote on a state form. The case sets up a high-stakes dispute over the state's efforts to tighten its voting requirements. It is a crime for non-U.S. citizens to vote in federal and state elections, but some states have sought to implement new restrictions aimed at ensuring noncitizens are not on their voter rolls amid claims of election fraud by President Trump. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in its next term, which begins in October. The dispute before the Supreme Court involves two Arizona laws that were adopted by the state legislature in 2022. The first requires prospective voters who are registering to vote on a state form to provide proof of citizenship, and the second involves procedures for state election officials to review voter rolls and cancel the voter registrations of noncitizens. Prospective voters can also register using a federal form, which does not require proof of citizenship. In Arizona, applicants completing the federal form that do not provide citizenship proof may be registered as voting in only federal elections, but are not eligible to vote for president or by mail. There were more than 19,000 Arizonans who had not supplied proof of citizenship and were registered as "federal-only" voters as of July 2023, according to court records. …