PHOENIX — A stringent new voter identification law being put into effect in Arizona -- designed to keep illegal immigrants from voting -- will also prevent thousands of legitimate voters from casting ballots Tuesday, election officials say.
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."
In Pima County, home to Tucson, 60% of those who tried to register initially could not. Chris Roads, chief deputy recorder and registrar, said all appeared to be U.S. citizens but many had moved to Arizona recently and couldn't access birth certificates or passports.
Many of those prospective voters have since been able to register, but Roads said about 1,000 citizens were still unable to vote in Tuesday's election because of Proposition 200 requirements. "The biggest bloc of people who are impacted are the legitimate citizens," Roads said.
Any change of address -- people moving from outside the state or those moving within Arizona -- triggers the registration requirement.
Advocates of the new law contend that it has been too easy to exercise the most important right of an American citizen. They and state officials who support it argue that legitimate voters will not be harmed once citizens understand the law.
