Registering LEGAL voters is somehow illegal?

Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes is determined to allow proven U.S. citizens to register to vote, which apparently is … illegal? Yes. And because we live, you know, in Arizona, this doesn’t shock you. According to an article by The Arizona Republic’s Rebekah L. Sanders, newly elected Recorder Fontes is going the extra mile when it comes to finding out whether voter-registration applicants should be added to the rolls, and a whole bunch of legal experts are telling him that what he is doing is against the law.

“We are not in the business of creating obstacles to citizens to exercise their constitutional rights,” Fontes responded.

Actually, it seems that in the state of Arizona, we are in that business.

During this legislative session the Republican-controlled Legislature passed a bill designed to make it much more difficult to get a voter initiative on the ballot, a right guaranteed by the Arizona Constitution. Previously, the Legislature made it a felony for a person other than a family member or caregiver to deliver an early ballot.

During an earlier debate Sen. Jack Jackson Jr., a Navajo, said, “Republicans want to make a felon out of someone helping their neighbors to vote, but many members of our tribal communities live in remote areas and depend on help to deliver their early ballots.”

They also are known to support Democrats, so…

Back in 2004 voters passed a proposition requiring proof of citizenship to participate in elections. No one has a problem with that. If you’re American, you get to vote. If not, no.

The law says, however, that if applicants don’t provide proof of citizenship, and then don’t respond to a “reminder letter,” the applications are rejected, warehoused in a kind of voter registration limbo. It’s understandable. The recorder’s office is a busy place. Fontes, however, wants to make every effort to register potential voters. So he had folks in his office go through records at the Motor Vehicle Department (which verifies citizenship) in order to find out if some of the rejected registration applicants are, in fact, eligible citizens.

According to Sanders’ article, Fontes found that of 74 forms checked against the MVD system, 43 were citizens. And since the applicants in question are citizens, Fontes had them added to the voter registration lists. He suspects there may be as many as 17,000 such cases.

However, Fontes has been told that what he is doing violates a policy in the elections manual that recorders are supposed to follow. He’s been told that his actions might face legal challenges.

Imagine that. Getting hauled into court for helping legal citizens to vote.

“They can bring it,” Fontes told Sanders. “I’m not interested in the status quo. I’m interested in doing what’s right.”

Hopefully, he’s not the only one.