More on Arizona Registration Issue
The Arizona Secretary of State is bristling at the Election Assistance Commission's opinion letter from last Monday, which I previously discussed here. That letter concluded that the state may not impose stricter proof requirements at the registration stage than those provided for by the federally approved form under the National Voter Registration Act ("NVRA"). To the extent that Arizona's Proposition 200, passed by voters in 2004, purports to require additional proof of eligibility, the EAC concluded that those state-imposed requirements must give way to federal law.

According to this story in the Arizona Daily Star, Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer has labelled the EAC's ruling "outlandish." It's not clear whether there's any legal basis for her opinion or, alternatively, whether she simply dislikes the EAC's conclusion. Brewer is reported as saying: "It seems pretty clear.... It's the law in Arizona." But this of course doesn't answer the EAC's point -- which seems to me incontrovertible -- that federal law trumps state law here.

Similarly beside the point is the remark of a Proposition 200 supporter, who is reported to have stated: "I'm pretty confident that if the Department of Justice has cleared it, there is no issue." Wrong again. Whether or not one believes that DOJ is a trustworthy opinion-giver on voting rights issues (more on that here), the scope of DOJ's preclearance review was limited to whether Proposition 200 complies with Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The fact that DOJ precleared Proposition 200 thus tells us nothing about whether it complies with the NVRA or, for that matter, any other provisions of the VRA or other federal laws. - posted by Dan Tokaji @ 3:35 PM