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Due
to take effect in January, the law violates the National Voter
Registration Act by requiring proof of citizenship to vote in
presidential elections or vote by mail in any federal election,
the department said.
"This lawsuit reflects our deep commitment to using every
available tool to protect all Americans' right to vote and to
ensure that their voices are heard in our democracy," Kristen
Clarke, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, told a
press briefing.
The law also violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by requiring
election officials to reject voter registration forms based on
minor errors, officials said. The suit was filed in the U.S.
District Court for the District of Arizona.
Arizona's Attorney General Mark Brnovich said he would fight the
lawsuit.
"I will once again be in court defending Arizona against the
lawlessness of the Biden administration," he said in a
statement.
Arizona has been a flashpoint in the U.S. battle over voting
rights.
A widely criticized Republican review of the 2020 presidential
election failed to find that irregularities marred Democrat Joe
Biden's narrow victory over Republican Donald Trump. The
Republican legislature has also scaled back the authority of the
state's top election official, a Democrat.
Arizona enacted a law in 2005 requiring new voters to provide
proof of citizenship, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2013
that the state could not impose that requirement on those who
used a federal form to register. Since then, the state has
allowed those voters to participate only in federal elections,
not state or local races.
Critics say the new law would disenfranchise longtime voters who
registered before the citizenship requirement was in place.
The Justice Department last year filed lawsuits against Texas
and Georgia over state voting restrictions that the department
said violated federal law.
(Reporting by Katharine Jackson and Eric Beech; editing by
Leslie Adler and Bill Berkrot)
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