Arizona has a new rule for voting on Election Day, giving voters who can prove their citizenship different ballots than those who cannot, KJZZ reported.
The announcement from the Secretary of State's Office on Monday follows a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year, which ruled Arizona cannot require voters to show identification when they use a federal form to register. However, Arizona's Proposition 200 requires citizens to use a passport or driver's license when using a state form to sign up to vote.
Since both state and federal forms are allowed, Arizona's attorney general spoke with Secretary of State Ken Bennett, who suggested creating two different ballots during every federal election.
"The counties will work all that out, but essentially, if you've registered without having proving citizenship, you would get a ballot that has just those offices only, the president, the U.S. senator or the Congress positions," Bennett said.
Bennet added the alternative ballots would be sent out to a few thousand people across the state.
D.J. Quinlan, the executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party, criticized the effort for creating a "second-class voter" who would be unable to vote for state legislators, the governor, or city council members.
"It seems to me you're just adding on layers of bureaucracy," Quinlan said.
The next federal election is in 2014.
AZCentral.com published an op-ed piece slamming the new ballot proposal, claiming Bennett and his associates of trying to search for voter fraud when the real problem is lack of voter participation.
"Nevertheless, two of Arizona's top elected officials are ready with a separate but unequal voter registration scheme that attacks the non-existent problem and undermines efforts to increase voter registration. (And they say Congress is dysfunctional.)" the editorial broad wrote.
"Changing the federal form so all Arizona voters meet the same requirements to register would be one way out of a problem - if we had a problem with non-citizens voting, which we don't.
"Meanwhile, Bennett and Thomas will take credit for a confusing dual-registration system that is likely to reduce voter turnout, but help them in their respective primaries.
'Tricky. But not good for Arizona."
