Prop 200, Protect Arizona Now!, has been kicking up a lot of political dust in Arizona because of it's racist overtones. However, a close reading of the Proposition's text and a fundamental knowledge of America voter behavior reveals the real purpose of PAN is its predictable side-effects on all new voters. It meant to preserve the GOP's control of Arizona in the face of swiftly changing demographics due to migration to Arizona from other U.S. states.
Read the full argument here: http://dean4az.blogspot.com/2004/08/protect-arizona-now-contains-trojan.html
Prop 200 will require checking ID sufficient to determine citizenship of all new voter registrations after its passage. Existing registered voters in Arizona are grandfathered out of this system, preserving the existing voting rates of currently registered citizens, who lean GOP.
But new arrivals in Arizona, even if they came from other states where they are registered to vote, must also provide sufficient ID to register in Arizona. The bill throws away any notion of interstate commity, and specifcally elminates any discretion in administrative officials to deem such registrations to be adequate proof of citizenship based on that state's proceedures. In short, there is no way for a new Arizona resident to avoid having to provide proof of citizenship to vote in Arizona under PAN.
This additional inconvenience imposed on so many, in an effort to attack vote fraud not even proven to exist, reveals the purpose of PAN to be the reduction of average voter registration and voting rates among new arrivals to Arizona. There is no possible legitimate public policy interest in creating such a large, negative, and avoidable side-effect on voter participation. PAN is designed to suppress the franchise of new arrivals at a rate disproportionate to the pre-PAN population in Arizona. The result will be to slow the growth of the Democratic party in Arizona, possibly even negating the numerical superiority of registered and voting Democrats among new residents of the state.
The argument for PAN most often cited by backers, and most appealing to many, even Democratic and minority voters, is the cost to tax-payers of services 'wrongfully' used by non-citizens and illegal aliens. These provisions, however, are almost certainly unconstitutional on several grounds, including conflict with Federal statutes, negative commerce clause problems, equal protection grounds, and an impermissible vaugeness. So PAN includes a severalbility clause to save the real heart of the bill when the unconstitutional political honey is extracted from the Initiative by the courts.
Arizonans will be left with nothing but a Trojan Horse lodged its elections law that would never have passed if presently honestly to the voters without its xenophobic, racist, and tax revolt facade. PAN is nothing but an eloborate and desparate attempt by the Arizona GOP to hold on to its waning power in the face of shifting demographics. All the rest is sound and fury, signifying nothing.
The Author's Blog is: Blog For Arizona