States seek right to ask new voters for proof of citizenship

Washington Times ^ | 1/19/2014 | Stephen Dinan

[markomalley]

States are vowing to go to the courts for permission to ask newly registered voters to show proof of citizenship after a federal commission ruled late Friday that it’s up to the national government, not states, to decide what to include on registration forms.

Under the motor-voter law, federal officials distribute voter-registration forms in all of the states. Arizona, Kansas and Georgia all asked that those forms request proof of citizenship, but the federal Election Assistance Commission rejected that in a 46-page ruling released late Friday, just ahead of a court-imposed deadline.

The EAC said states can check driver’s license databases or ask federal immigration authorities for information, but they cannot tell the federal government what to include on federal forms.

“The EAC finds that granting the states’ requests would likely hinder eligible citizens from registering to vote in federal elections, undermining a core purpose of the NVRA,” the commission said in its ruling, referring to the National Voter Registration Act, or motor-voter law.

But Kris Kobach, Kansas’ secretary of state, said the states will go back to the courts and said there’s already a motion in front of U.S. District Judge Eric F. Melgren in Kansas to hear the case. He’s the same judge who set the deadline for the EAC’s ruling on Friday.

Indeed, the legal back-and-forth was in part spurred by a Supreme Court ruling last year, when the justices said Arizona couldn’t refuse to accept the federal registration forms.

But Justice Antonin Scalia also specifically said states could ask the EAC to include the request on forms distributed in that state, and said if the EAC refused, the states could come back to the courts.

[Jacquerie]

At the constitutional convention, the delegates went round and round over the House of Reps elector qualifications. Some states had minimum land or wealth requirements, while a couple had near universal white male suffrage.

Anyway, the various state standards were too varied to reconcile into a single, nationwide standard. That's why Article I § 2 was written as: The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the People of the several States, and the electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature.

Outside of gender and race amendments to the constitution, I don't understand where the uniparty in DC has any legitimate power at all to determine voter qualifications.

[trebb]

The EAC said states can check driver’s license databases or ask federal immigration authorities for information, but they cannot tell the federal government what to include on federal forms.

Part of the problem is that the States have become bigger versions of welfare babies and think they have to ask permission to exercise their Constitutional rights/responsibilities. If they can't get the Feds to put something on a form, they should add their own form and force the Feds to take action - not courts-orders, actual action...

[DaveA37]

I thought the “SC” already made it clear that states could NOT require proof of citizenship to vote.

[Gritty]

Yeah, but get a concealed Handgun License to exercise your Second Amendment rights and the state still makes you give fingerprints, get intensive criminal and mental health background checks, requires you take special classes, charges you $120 for the paperwork, restricts how and where you can carry, demands you produce the permit if stopped by a police officer, and you are still at risk for felony prosecution in certain other states if you carry there.

Am I missing something here on our "civil rights" lesson...?

[jimt]

Thanks for the word on Hotze the Nazi.

[Grams A]

You’re welcome. If you hear anything one way or another on Patrick or Staples, please share. TNX and have a great week.

[rfreedom4u]

go to the courts for permission

Permission? since when do states have to get permission from a court?