Thread: Hispanic groups filed lawsuit unconstitutional voter ID

Group's lawsuit challenges Arizona's voter ID requirements
May 9, 2006, 08:11 PM EDT

http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=4882358&nav=HMO6HMaW

Hispanic groups on Tuesday filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to block and declare unconstitutional voter identification requirements imposed under the 2004 voter-approved state law known as Proposition 200.


Voter registration drives are being hindered by the law's mandate for registrants to submit documents proving their citizenship, while the requirement to show specified types of identification when voting at polling places could keep citizens from exercising their voting rights, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Chicanos Por La Causa, Friendly House, Valle del Sol, Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and the Arizona Hispanic Community Forum.

"The reality is that Proposition 200 erects more barriers to voting and discourages citizens from registering to vote," said Cynthia Valenzuela, MALDEF director of litigation.

Proposition 200 was placed on the ballot through an initiative campaign whose proponents argued that its voter ID requirements would prevent and combat voter fraud by non-citizens. It was aimed chiefly at illegal immigrants.

Other provisions of the same law sought to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving certain public services. The reach of those provisions also has been the subject of lawsuits.

The groups behind Tuesday's lawsuit are requesting a court order requiring the state to accept voter registrations that use a form mandated by Congress in a 1993 federal law. The groups say the state's refusal to accept registrations using that federal form without the state-required identification has thwarted voter registration drives.

The lawsuit also contends that the Arizona law's voter identification requirement violates the U.S. Constitution and the federal Voting Rights Act.

Hispanics are less likely to have the identification required to register and cast ballots, the lawsuit said. "As a result, significant numbers of Latinos attempting to register and turn out to vote are denied the right to vote."

Community voter registration drives are hindered by the need to have a photocopier or computer scanner and printer to make copies of citizenship documents of would-be voters without a driver's license or state identification card, the lawsuit said.

The state will fight the lawsuit and defend the voter-approved law, said Secretary of State Jan Brewer, the state's chief elections officer.

Brewer is the lead individual defendant in the lawsuit along with recorders and election directors from Arizona's 15 counties.

Brewer also said she disagrees with the federal Election Assistance Commission's contention that Arizona cannot require additional proof of citizenship from a registrant using the federal form.

Translation: "We're illegal! We don't have those documents to prove our citizenship because we don't exist. Really! We just want to vote for anyone who will permit us to be lawbreakers and get away with it. THEN we WILL go from non-existent to being able to finally "come out" and EXIST so that we can take all your hard earned tax dollars and send it all back to Mexico so we can make more drugs so that we can increase our numbers so that we can come back across your border with millions more to rape, pillage and plunder you while we poison your children with world-class, grade-A drugs."

---- End Translation ----

Hispanics are less likely to have the identification required to register and cast ballots, the lawsuit said. "As a result, significant numbers of Latinos attempting to register and turn out to vote are denied the right to vote."

This translates to illegals are less likely to thave the required indentification.

I am very anxious to see how the Supreme Court comes down on some of these lawsuits by and about the illegals. You know there will be a few.

While snowing us with how the two new guys will vote on abortion, I fear they are on the court for a very different reason and congress and the PResident were playing at misdirection.

We are all going to have to track this. They are going to try many different tactics to make it so illegals actually vote. If one fails they will try another, and I am sure they will get the ACLU involved along the way.

Our legal system might just be our downfall.