PHOENIX (AP) - A federal appellate court has blocked the enforcement of an Arizona law that requires voters to show identification before casting a ballot and submit proof of citizenship when registering to vote. The ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday came a month before the Nov. 7 general election, and just before Monday's deadline to register. The law had already been used for the Sept. 12 primary and in some municipal elections.| Ninth Circus does it again. Any legitimate voter have trouble on Sept. 12th? |
Critics said that the law would disenfranchise voters, particularly minorities and the elderly, and that requiring voters to acquire and produce identification would be burdensome in time, money and effort.
State Attorney General Terry Goddard said in a statement that he plans to ask the full 9th Circuit Court or the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the decision. Secretary of State Jan Brewer, who has defended the law as a protection against voter fraud, said she hopes the decision is reversed ``very quickly.'' ``I'm very concerned about the confusion that this potentially will create in the upcoming election, with the retraining of all the poll workers and the re-education of the public so close to Nov. 7,'' Brewer said.
The law has been challenged in federal court by groups including the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, the League of Women Voters, the Navajo Nation, the Arizona Civil Liberties Union, the Arizona Advocacy Network and the Mexican-American Legal and Educational Fund.
| All the usual suspects. |