An appellate court has now blocked Arizona's requirement that voters provide proof of citizenship. 

The ruling was made by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024.

The appellate court, here, reversed an earlier ruling that upheld the requirement.

Now, if things remain as they are, there will be no proof of citizenship requirement.

Background

In 2022, Arizona's legislature - which was led by Republicans - passed a measure aimed a protecting the integrity of our elections.

Arizona, of course, is one of the states most heavily impacted by the open-border policies of the Biden administration, given the fact that the state is located on the U.S.-Mexico border. Accordingly, there has been a lot of concern about the possibility of individuals who are not U.S. citizens voting in elections.

Arizona is one of those states that does not have a proof of citizenship requirement for voters. Instead, all the voters must do to register to vote is attest, under the penalty of perjury, that they are legal citizens.

To combat the concern about non-citizens voting in elections, the Arizona legislature passed a measure requiring Arizona residents to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote.

This would seem to be a commonsensical thing to do to help protect the integrity of our elections. But, believe it or not, this simple citizenship requirement has led to a massive legal battle.

The latest

Tucson.com reports that, in response to the passage of the proof of citizenship requirement:

Several rights groups filed suit, calling the requirement “a baseless assault on Arizona’s election system based on a conspiracy theory that non-citizens are voting, despite a persistent lack of credible evidence to support such claims.’’ And they cited a federal law that allows people to register without citizenship proof if they avow, under penalty of perjury, they are entitled to cast ballots.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton initially agreed with the challengers, blocking the measure from taking effect.

A couple of weeks ago, however, the appellate court partially reversed the ruling, holding, according to Tucson.com, that "the state can reject those who sign up using the state form if they don’t also submit proof of citizenship, even if those people are only signing up to vote in federal elections."

Now, however, the appellate court has overruled this ruling.

It is likely that this legal battle will continue. But, for now, as stated, it appears that proof of citizenship will not be required from Arizona voters.