St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Voting limits undemocratic

The following editorial appeared in Thursday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

The latest assault on Americans' right to vote is coming from the states of Kansas and Arizona. Republican officials in both states have decided to ignore a key party principle — fiscal prudence — to create separate registration systems for state and federal elections.

The sole purpose of the two-tiered system is to prevent as many potential Democratic voters as possible from voting in state and local elections. Faced with demographic shifts that threaten their chances at national office, Republicans are desperate to maintain their hold on state legislatures.

Not only is two-tiered voting unfair and undemocratic, it also would be very complicated and expensive for local election boards to implement. Thus your tax dollars could be helping to subvert democracy.

Back in June, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out an Arizona law that required residents to show proof of U.S. citizenship when filling out a simple federal voter registration form. By the court's usual 5-4 conservative-liberal split, the 7-2 ruling in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona was a landslide.

So Kansas and Arizona are working on creating two kinds of voters. Those who show the proper papers will be able to vote in all elections. Those without such proof will only be able to vote for president, Senate and U.S. House candidates.

This will require up to four separate registration forms and require local election authorities to print at least two separate kinds of ballots for election jurisdiction. It would lead to election day chaos. All in the name of preventing citizens from voting.