What Arizona Can Teach Congress About Verifying Voter Citizenship
The 119th Congress is underway, and Republicans are set to advance their priorities on a range of issues. Chief among these is the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act), introduced by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), which seeks to require proof of citizenship in order to vote in federal elections. Although citizenship verification may feel like a recent Republican campaign issue, it has been the law in Arizona for years and is overwhelmingly popular with Americans on both sides of the aisle. After years of implementation hurdles and legal challenges to the policy, Arizona is uniquely positioned to help Congress craft a bill that promotes election integrity nationwide while avoiding unnecessary red tape for eligible voters.
Arizona’s history of requiring proof of citizenship dates back to 2004, when voters approved Proposition 200. Under the new law, county recorders were required to verify proof of citizenship as part of the voter registration process. Litigation blocked Arizona from fully implementing the law for over a decade, and the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately prohibited citizenship verification for federal elections. The state eventually landed on its current system, which involves two registration lists: one for “full ballot” voters who provide evidence of citizenship and can vote in federal, state, and local elections; another for “federal only” voters who attest to citizenship but do not provide documentary evidence.
These bifurcated registration lists provide useful data and insights that can inform the congressional debate. First, the Arizona experience demonstrates that the vast majority of voters are able to prove citizenship. In 2024, 99 percent of Arizona’s 4.4 million registered voters verified their citizenship and were eligible to vote a full ballot. The remaining 1 percent (around 45,000 voters) did not provide the required documentation and were limited to voting for federal offices only.
The high percentage of voters able to prove citizenship suggests that compliance with Arizona’s policy is easy for the majority of citizens. While the state accepts a lengthy list of documents for use in proving citizenship, the most convenient options are often driver’s licenses and state IDs. Because Arizonans already provide proof of citizenship when obtaining these IDs, the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division handles the citizenship check behind the scenes. Given long-standing federal laws connecting driver’s licenses and state IDs with citizenship and voter registration, this level of information sharing across databases will be essential to institute a successful citizenship verification requirement nationwide.
Despite Arizona’s user-friendly verification system, some Arizonans still struggle to prove their American citizenship when registering to vote. For example, some citizens do not have access to documentation at the time of registration, such as out-of-state college students whose records are with their parents or homeless individuals who have no records at all. If the question for policymakers is how to handle people who fall into this category, then the answer lies in better public education and easier access to government documentation.
For example, the scenario in which a college student with an out-of-state ID must enroll as a federal-only voter because they failed to bring a birth certificate or passport can be mitigated by simple awareness that citizenship checks will be in place. This would be easier to address under a national policy requiring all voters to prove citizenship as opposed to the current situation, in which students must know the nuances of Arizona’s state election law.
In another scenario, where individuals simply do not have access to documents that prove citizenship, the government should help navigate the process of obtaining replacement documents from relevant government agencies, such as state vital records offices or the federal Citizen and Immigration Services department. If the government knows someone is a citizen, then the government should do as much as possible to ensure these individuals can register to vote—up to and including waiving documentation fees. Congress could help by providing resources to facilitate these services at the local election office level and directing federal agencies to eliminate red tape that makes it difficult to access relevant data.
Overall, requiring proof of citizenship to vote is a commonsense policy with broad bipartisan support. That said, overly restrictive criteria for proving citizenship could inadvertently limit ballot access for eligible citizens. As Congress considers the specifics of their proposal to require citizenship checks, they should follow Arizona’s lead, making it easy for American citizens to comply and difficult for non-citizens to vote. In particular, a policy that identifies a long list of acceptable documents to establish citizenship and minimizes red tape and bureaucracy by encouraging information sharing across government agencies holds great promise for increasing trust in America’s elections.