Arizona's proof of citizenship voting law, explained

Arizona voters approved Proposition 200, which required documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, a birth certificate, passport, naturalization number, or an Arizona driver license issued after October 1996, among other accepted documents.

The U.S. Supreme Court held that Arizona could not reject the federal voter registration form for lacking documentary proof of citizenship, because the National Voter Registration Act requires states to 'accept and use' that form.

The result is a two-track system that still exists: voters who register with the federal form without documentary proof are eligible for federal races, while full-ballot eligibility runs through the state process. Election administrators refer to the first group as 'federal-only' voters.

Arizona has passed additional legislation in this area, and pieces of it have been litigated in federal court repeatedly. Because the legal status of specific provisions can change with a court ruling, we do not summarize the current posture here, check the Arizona Secretary of State's election law resources and current court records for where things stand.

Prop 144's citizenship provision operates at the constitutional level: only citizens may vote in Arizona elections. It sits on top of this registration framework rather than replacing it. If you want to know precisely how the text interacts with existing registration statutes, read HCR 2001 directly at azleg.gov.