Eligible to Vote in Arizona? Prove It - Los Angeles Times: "Proposition 200, which voters approved last year, requires Arizonans to prove U.S. citizenship to register to vote and to show a photo ID at the polls.
The law put this border state at the edge of a nationwide push to tighten screening at the polls: fifteen states now require ID at polling places, but no other state requires documentation of citizenship in order to register.
It's a movement that advocates say is long overdue to prevent election fraud, but which critics say will decrease voter turnout and has already disenfranchised thousands of Arizona voters.
In Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, more than 10,000 people trying to register have been rejected for being unable to prove their citizenship. Yvonne Reed, a spokeswoman for the recorder's office, said Friday that most probably are U.S. citizens whose married names differ from their birth certificates or who have lost documentation.
Reed said she hoped the number of rejected voters would shrink as election officials explained the new requirements. But, she said, 'there will be an amount of people who we will not be able to get on the rolls because of not being able to find the right documents or just losing interest.'"
Actually since married women are much more likely to vote republican than unmarried women, it would be poetic if this disenfranchises a bunch of republican women.
