Subcommittee weighs bills to require proof of U.S. citizenship; members debate indigent-voucher, same‑day registration impacts

Members of the Election Law Subcommittee spent a large portion of the Feb. 21 session on whether and how the state should require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration and how to treat people who cannot immediately produce those documents.

Representative C introduced House Bill 365, a proposal that would let local officials request that the Secretary of State attempt to verify a registrant's citizenship through available state and federal records and authorize vouchers for indigent applicants to obtain certified birth certificates. The proposal would also allow a clerk to mark a registration as "U.S. citizenship verified" if the Secretary of State confirms the status. The bill includes a limited concession for election-day workloads: verification on election day would not be required if it would "unreasonably interfere with other election day duties."

Representative Jameson told the panel she had received substantial opposition to measures like this and raised practical concerns. "I find it, hard to believe that we would accept an affidavit saying I'm poor, but not accept 1 saying I'm a citizen and able to vote," she said, arguing that affidavit-based verification and penalties for false claims have been long-standing parts of registration practice. Other members warned that documentary pathways can be costly and time consuming: marriage-name changes, out-of-state births, adoptions and lost records can make obtaining a certified birth certificate a multi-step process.

Representative Lane explained the intent behind a different bill she filed, which she described as restoring the statutory language removed by last year's HB 1569. "The short version of this is that it repeals 15 69 and puts everything back the way it was before HB 15 69 passed," Lane told the subcommittee. She said the office of legislative services rewrote statutory language to return to pre‑1569 text, and the sponsor intends the bill as a restoration rather than a policy change beyond that reversal.

Secretary Scanlon and ACLU counsel Henry Klementowicz both stressed competing interests. The secretary said the office would work with the committee to find procedures that "bring transparency, and confidence to the process" while not creating barriers. Klementowicz cautioned the panel to consider federal case law and the Anderson‑Burdick balancing test, and to be mindful that documentary-proof rules in some states have led to significant numbers of otherwise eligible registrants being disqualified.

Committee members instructed staff to compile comparative information — including the National Conference of State Legislatures' survey showing that a small minority of states require documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration — and to assemble relevant court decisions. The subcommittee did not adopt statutory language at the Feb. 21 meeting and scheduled continued consideration for its next working session.