Voting Rights

The Supreme Court ruled this week that Arizona could not demand proof of citizenship from those who want to register to vote in federal elections "unless it gets federal or court approval to do so".  States do not have the authority to change voter registration laws that come under the "motor-voter" registration law.  This was a 7 to 2 ruling with Judge Scalia-of all people-writing the majority opinion.  I find this of interest because when I was registering students to vote in BHS we operated under this law.  We could not and did not ask for proof of citizenship because the law said if a person was willing to swear-to avow-that the statements made on the registration form were correct, that was all we were allow to ask.  My view was, from my experienced, that students told the truth as they knew it when explained the law and the possible penalties for an incorrect registration form.  My thinking and that of my department head at the time was that if students had to bring in proof of citizenship or birth records we would have registered only a handful of new voters.The case was Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona Inc.