As state lawmakers tighten voting rules, what will the impact be on the midterm elections?

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• Geoff Bennett:

  Late last month, Arizona's Republican governor signed a bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote in presidential elections. Voting Rights Advocates say it could make it harder for some 200,000 Arizonans to cast their ballots. It's the latest move and a coordinated effort by Republican lawmakers nationwide to tighten voting rules ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

  This past week I spoke with Jessica Huseman, the editorial director of Votebeat about these changes.

  Jessica Huseman thanks for joining us.

  So Arizona governor Doug Ducey, as you know, he's signed legislation to expand U.S. citizenship voting requirements in his state. It's a measure that critics warn will jeopardize the voter registrations of thousands of Arizona residents.

  But this requirement, as I understand it has been on the books since 2004. And then back in 2013, the Supreme Court said it was not permissible in federal elections. So help us understand the motivation behind this law. And in whether or not it's constitutional.

• Jessica Huseman, Editorial Director, Votebeat:

  Sure, of course, there are a couple of states that have attempted to do this, Kansas and Georgia are the other two, Alabama also had floated around the edges of this in the past. And universally, it has been ruled by federal courts to be unconstitutional, and specifically to violate the NVRA, which was the Voter Registration Act that dictates how people can register for elections across the country.

  And Federal law says that you must be able to use a federal form in order to register for federal elections, the federal form does not require documentary proof of citizenship. And so courts have repeatedly ruled that any barriers or requirements that go beyond that form are not permissible in federal elections.

  And so after Arizona instituted this in 2004, they were doing it for both state and federal elections. In 2003, the Supreme Court again said that that was not permissible. And so they split federal and elect federal and state registration from each other. And so you don't have to present documentary proof of citizenship in Arizona to register for federal elections. You do for the state and Arizona is essentially knowingly bucking federal law and previous court precedent in order to pass this law.

• Geoff Bennett:

  All right, so that's Arizona, walk us through some of the other biggest latest moves by states to change voting laws ahead of this year's primaries.

• Jessica Huseman:

  You know, you've seen a lot of it, I think that one of the biggest thing that's happening in the last couple of weeks is that several states have made moves to ban private grants to election administrators. So, election administrators are either banned outright or entirely restricted from accepting private money to administer elections.

  And on one hand, that's not a terrible idea. I mean, you — we don't necessarily want the richest people in America calling the shots and how we dictate our elections or administer them. But I do think that states are not coming forward with funding on their own.

  So in 2020, Mark Zuckerberg donated almost $350 million, which election administrators relied on almost exclusively to pull off an election during a pandemic. Now that states have banned those private donations, they have not also increased their own funding. So I'm talking to election administrators across the country, who are really at a loss as to what they're supposed to do. If they can't get private funding, and the federal government and the state and local governments are not putting up the money themselves, they're just left with fewer dollars.

• Geoff Bennett:

  I was just going to ask you that if this is a role for Congress to play. We know that voting legislation, voting rights legislation on the federal level has basically stalled. But could Congress have a more of a role in in funding local elections?

• Jessica Huseman:

  Yes, absolutely. You know, last year, the local election administrators were convinced that they were going to get $10 billion over 10 years in the budget that was passed last summer. They did not get that. Nancy Pelosi, as we reported pull that at the very last minute. That number has resurfaced again in President Biden's proposed budget. He has again proposed $10 billion over 10 years to be distributed to local election administrators.

  But, you know, Congress doesn't have to listen to the President. The President's proposed budget gets thrown in the trash can almost every year. And so there's really no compelling need for Congress to act on what President Biden has recommended and we're already seeing pushback back from seven Republicans who do not want to give more money to election administration this go around.

• Geoff Bennett:

  What's that old saying when it comes to budgets, the White House proposes and Congress disposes. Jessica Huseman, editorial director of Votebeat. Appreciate your time.

• Jessica Huseman:

  Thank you so much.