The Supreme Court of the US (SCOTUS) ruled this morning that Arizona could not add requirements to the 1993 National Voter Registration Act (also called “Motor Voter”) that would force applicants to provide proof of citizenship when attempting to register with the federal voter registration form. Many voter integrity supporters will be shocked to note that Justice Scalia wrote the majority opinion, with only Thomas and Alito dissenting. A detailed NY Times analysis can be found here.

Rather than get frustrated by the ruling, supporters of voter integrity should light up the phones of their Congressional delegation and ask how your elected Rep or Senator plans to remedy the problem. Federal law got us into this mess and it will take a change to that law in order to get us out of it.

Simply put, we urgently need a specific law allowing states to screen for US citizenship in their voter registration processes. Getting Congress to pass such a law would be easier than getting it through the cynical Senate side; but this question needs to be asked of our elected “leaders” right away.

Pragmatists will argue against such a measure, but any elected Legislator who opposes allowing states to keep non-US citizens off the voter roll . . . is unfit for office. Voters and activists need to ask the hard question to their “leaders” in order for the politicians to get the message. Otherwise, we deserve the government we have!