In 2022, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club crafted the blueprint to stop illegals from voting in our elections, authoring landmark legislation that was signed into law, becoming the first state in the nation requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote with HB2492. Now, states around the country are taking notice and adopting our model, and just this week President Trump signed an Executive Order to do it nationally. Arizona was just the tip of the spear, and the dominoes are finally beginning to fall.
As of this week, two states require proof of citizenship to register to vote. Arizona was the first with HB2492. Earlier this year, Wyoming became the second. And now, the Texas Senate is considering a bill that is nearly identical to the Arizona Model which would make them the third.
Arizona has long been at the forefront of this issue. In 2004, Arizona voters overwhelmingly approved Prop 200 to require proof of citizenship to vote. After nearly a decade of litigation, the US Supreme Court allowed us to only implement the requirement on our own voter registration form but prevented us from requiring it on the Federal Form. The result over the decade following the decision was the complete proliferation of the “Federal Only Voting” list amounting to tens of thousands of potential noncitizens registering and voting in our elections.
That’s why in 2022, we authored HB2492 which was signed into law, adding the strongest protections in the nation while keeping within the confines of the US Supreme Court’s decision. This bill is stopping illegals from voting here in Arizona and providing the model for other states to follow. Dozens of organizations immediately sued, and the law has been in litigation since. But it has already proven to work, and that’s why other states, and President Trump, are taking notice and action.
Last year, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club was invited to provide expert testimony to the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs on the Arizona Model to require proof of citizenship to vote. Following that hearing in October, Chairman Brian Huges introduced SB 16 which is nearly identical to HB 2492.
If passed and signed into law, Texas would be the third state in the nation, following Arizona and Wyoming, requiring proof of citizenship prior to registering to vote. Specifically, this bill would fully require proof of citizenship when registering with the state provided voter registration form. Not only was this affirmed as constitutional by the US Supreme Court in 2013, but it was also re-affirmed late last year when the high court took an emergency appeal in the litigation regarding Arizona’s HB2492, issuing a stay of a radical lower court ruling to allow us to fully implement this requirement. Arizona has been rejecting voter registration forms without proof of citizenship since then.
SB 16 would also adopt Arizona’s model by limiting those who are registered to vote without proof of citizenship from voting by mail or for any state, local, or Presidential election. In other words, as required by the Inter-Tribal Council Decision, those who register with the Federal Form would still be registered to vote, but they could only vote in person, and they could only vote in elections for the US House and Senate.
Finally, SB 16, just like HB 2492, would require officials in Texas to regularly consult resources and databases at their disposal to investigate the citizenship status of those registered without proof. If evidence is found proving an individual is not a US citizen, they would be removed from the rolls, and the matter would be referred to law enforcement.
Most people know you have to be a citizen to vote. But many do not know that right now in 48 states, you do not have to prove it. In Arizona, we know the impact this has. In 2020, we had 11,600 voters who had never provided proof of citizenship vote in an election where the difference between President Trump and Biden was just 10,457 votes.
Because of the constraints of the National Voter Registration Act, most states cannot require proof of citizenship across the board. Arizona has done all that it can to enforce our requirements within those constraints, and it is working. Wyoming became the second state. Texas is on track to be the third. Of course, if Congress passes the SAVE Act, the problem will go away for federal elections. Until then, it’s time for every other state to follow suit and adopt the Arizona model. If they do, when and if the SAVE Act is signed into law, they will protect all of their elections – local, state, and federal – from noncitizens registering and voting.
Greg Blackie is the deputy director of policy for the Arizona Free Enterprise Club.
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