The Supreme Court Takes Up Citizenship Verification
By Justin Riemer, President, USGI, and Marshal Trigg, Counsel, USGI
The Supreme Court will hear Republican National Committee v. Mi Familia Vota on December 8, the latest round of litigation over Arizona’s 2022 election laws addressing citizenship verification and removal.
The RNC sought review of two issues. The first is whether the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), or a 2018 federal consent decree the state entered into, prevent Arizona from requiring documentary proof of citizenship from applicants who register using the state’s own voter-registration form. Under that decree, Arizona cannot reject a state-form application submitted without such proof, but must instead register the applicant for federal elections only—as a so-called “federal-only” voter. The Ninth Circuit held that both do. The RNC argues that the ruling improperly applies restrictions governing the federal registration form to a separate form created by the State.
The second issue concerns the NVRA’s 90-day pre-election restriction on systematic voter-list maintenance. Arizona law requires election officials to cancel a registration, irrespective of timing, when information obtained through periodic list reviews confirms that the registrant is not a U.S. citizen. The Ninth Circuit held that the NVRA bars Arizona from carrying out those removals during the 90 days before a federal election. The RNC argues that the provision does not require states to retain registrations of people who were never eligible to register.
Although this case remains a blockbuster, the RNC did not seek review of every issue decided below. For example, the Ninth Circuit struck down state provisions that prohibited individuals who did not provide proof of citizenship from voting by mail or for President. The presidential voting restriction in particular would have presented the Supreme Court with a significant opportunity to clarify the breadth of Congress’s authority under the U.S. Constitution to regulate presidential electors. The vote-by-mail restriction involving an obscure provision of the NVRA was less significant from a constitutional law perspective but had considerable policy implications.
Arizona legislative leaders separately petitioned the Court after losing in the Ninth Circuit on the State’s proof-of-residence requirement for the state registration form, the vote-by-mail restriction, and whether the law was enacted with discriminatory intent. The State of Arizona petitioned the Court solely on the Ninth Circuit’s discriminatory intent ruling and on organizational standing. Both petitions technically remain pending.
Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE), together with the Center for Election Confidence and the Honest Elections Project, filed an amicus brief on the merits last week supporting the RNC. A number of other organizations and public officials, including Secretaries of State, also filed briefs supporting the RNC. On balance, the odds slightly favor Supreme Court reversal of the Ninth Circuit on both issues. In 2024, the Supreme Court granted the RNC a stay of a lower court ruling enjoining enforcement of the state registration form proof of citizenship requirement. Also in 2024, the Court issued a stay of a Virginia federal district court ruling preventing Virginia from removing noncitizen voters within the 90-day pre-election period. However, given the Court’s recent ruling in the Watson case rejecting the claim that mail ballots must be returned by Election Day, the ultimate result of Mi Familia Vota is far less certain than some of the Court’s critics may assume.
Arizona
At least 149,776 voters, nearly all in Maricopa County, received letters asking whether they had moved after comparisons between voter registration and driver’s license records flagged address discrepancies. A 2022 law requires monthly comparisons to help maintain the state’s voter rolls.
California
On August 31, a Marina del Rey petition circulator was sentenced to 18 months of probation and 120 hours of community service after she pleaded guilty to paying individuals, including homeless people on Los Angeles’s Skid Row, to register to vote. Prosecutors said she solicited petition signatures in exchange for money and, on several occasions, supplied her own address to homeless registrants.
Colorado
The Secretary of State’s office announced that Initiative 256, a proposed constitutional amendment limiting mid-decade congressional redistricting, qualified for the November ballot. Beginning with the 2028 election, the measure would prohibit changes to an approved congressional map without approval from the state’s Congressional Redistricting Commission and Supreme Court. Initiative 256 requires a 55% majority vote to become law.
Georgia
A state audit of roughly 8 million voter registrations determined that Georgia’s system generally prevents noncitizens from registering and found no evidence of widespread fraud. Auditors identified about 2,570 potential noncitizens who were placed in active or inactive status because of administrative failures, including 407 registrations with voting histories. They attributed the problems largely to driver’s license processing errors and county verification failures.
Iowa
Linn County removed 422 voters, roughly 85 percent of the registrations challenged, after a record 495 eligibility challenges this year. State law holds the bulk of the removals until after the November election.
Johnson County election officials completed an initial review of 921 voter registration challenges. Eighteen voters requested cancellation or had already canceled their registrations, while officials resolved nine challenges without removal. Officials will review the remaining 894 registrations after the November election.
Michigan
The Michigan Auditor General reported that the state’s list-maintenance program canceled more than 300 noncitizen registrations and removed close to a million defunct records over the review period. The program found roughly 2,500 ballots cast in the names of voters who had since died over the prior four years, about a hundredth of a percent of votes cast. The audit findings are available here.
Montana
The State Administration and Veterans Affairs Committee voted to subpoena Secretary of State Jacobsen for details on the voter data her office turned over to the Department of Justice in 2025, which included partial Social Security numbers and dates of birth.
Nevada
Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar’s office confirmed receiving seven DOJ subpoenas seeking Nevada voter data, an escalation after a federal court dismissed the DOJ’s civil suit for the state’s unredacted voter file.
New Jersey
House Republicans are escalating their inquiry into New Jersey’s noncitizen voter registration error after Governor Sherrill responded to lawmakers’ questions by stating that affected residents had been notified and disputing that the SAVE America Act would have prevented the problem. U.S. Representative Jeff Van Drew, chair of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Oversight Subcommittee, said he plans to hold a hearing, seek additional records from state election officials, and consider subpoenas if officials do not cooperate.
North Carolina
The 100 county boards of elections have begun mailing absentee ballots, making North Carolina the first state to begin voting in the 2026 midterm general election. In-person early voting will run from October 15 through October 31, and Election Day and the absentee ballot return deadline are November 3.
Vermont
State officials removed around 900 people from Vermont’s voter rolls after an audit found that the DMV had transmitted voter registration information for about 20,000 residents who had declined to register. Most remained on the rolls because they had separately indicated an intent to register, while officials removed those who had never voted or otherwise interacted with the election system. The errors appear to derive from the state’s transition to automatic voter registration and a later DMV data migration.
Wisconsin
The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted to request voting-equipment audit logs from Milwaukee over a wrong-file error that delayed reporting of the August primary results, and to move toward a final determination on whether Green Bay violated state law by mailing duplicate absentee ballots.
Colorado
Amendments to the Colorado Department of State Election Rules
Hearing: September 14, 2026
The Secretary of State noticed proposed amendments to the office’s Election Rules, revising voter-registration matching criteria and mail-ballot envelope signature-capture requirements, among other changes, and implementing HB 26-1113. Written comments may be submitted through the September 14 hearing.
North Carolina
On September 4, the North Carolina Board of Elections approved new guidelines for mail-in ballots in a split vote, hours before those ballots were sent to voters. The guidance changes how county officials handle certain ballot defects, including improperly sealed inner envelopes. Similar proposed rules were blocked from taking effect in the 2026 election.
Federal Agencies
National Republican Congressional Committee v. Brown, No. 26A274(U.S.)
On September 4, the Supreme Court granted the National Republican Congressional and Senatorial Committees a stay of the Fourth Circuit’s decision setting aside Federal Communications Commission (FCC) guidance that extended discounted broadcast-advertising rates to political parties making coordinated ad buys and for certain joint fundraising ads. The Court held that the Fourth Circuit likely lacked statutory jurisdiction because the challengers sought judicial review while their application for review remained pending before the full Commission, and that the committees would suffer irreparable harm from losing favorable advertising rates before the midterms.
Arizona
Republican National Committee v. Mi Familia Vota, No. 25-1017 (U.S.)
On September 5, the Center for Election Confidence, Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections, and the Honest Elections Project filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold two Arizona voter-registration laws—a documentary proof-of-citizenship requirement and a mandate to remove noncitizen registrants within 90 days of a federal election—that the Ninth Circuit held violated the National Voter Registration Act. Several other amicus briefs were also filed in support of the state and RNC. The Court granted review in July and set argument for December 8, 2026.
Delaware
Hocker v. Albence, No. 2026-1021 (Del. Ch.)
On September 4, a state court upheld Delaware’s permanent absentee voting law against a state constitutional challenge, holding that the statute (which permits qualifying voters to keep receiving absentee ballots without reapplying each election) does not expand who may vote absentee, since a voter’s status is canceled once the qualifying condition ends.
District of Columbia
Trujillo v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, No. 1:26-cv-03072 (D.D.C.)
On September 2, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and a naturalized citizen filed suit in federal court to stop the Department of Homeland Security from pressing California to match its voter rolls against federal databases and to force rescission of a letter demanding the state’s voter file, arguing the database comparisons wrongly flag naturalized citizens as noncitizens.
League of Women Voters v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security,No. 26-5243(D.C. Cir.)
On September 4, the D.C. Circuit denied the government’s request to stay a district court order setting aside the “modified SAVE” changes that let the citizenship-verification system run searches on full or partial Social Security numbers, holding the government had not made a strong showing of likely success on its Social Security Act claim. The court expedited the consolidated appeals.
Hawaii
Public Interest Legal Foundation v. Nago, No. 1:23-cv-00389 (D. Haw.)
The Center for Election Confidence announced that former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Ninth Circuit’s decision exempting the statewide voter file from the NVRA’s public transparency provisions. The Honest Elections Project also filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the Ninth Circuit appeal.
Indiana
Deery v. Copenhaver, No. 26A-EX-2271 (Ind.)
On September 3, the Indiana Supreme Court stayed the issuance and distribution of general-election ballots for state Senate District 23 across six counties while it weighs an appeal of the recount that left the original winner of the state senate race three votes behind his opponent. Argument is scheduled for September 10.
Maryland
Wheatley v. Maryland State Board of Elections, No. C-09-CV-26-000285 (Md. Cir. Ct., Dorchester Cnty.)
On August 28, a state trial court held that the General Assembly violated the state constitution, the Declaration of Rights, and state election laws by approving a proposed constitutional amendment on congressional redistricting. The court found that the legislature passed misleading ballot language and failed to comply with applicable deadlines. The court enjoined the question from appearing on the November ballot but stayed the order pending appeal to the state Supreme Court.
On September 3, the Supreme Court of Maryland kept the proposed amendment on the November ballot but ordered its ballot summary rewritten, holding the language voters would have seen was misleading and violated due process.
Massachusetts
State of California v. United States Postal Service, No. 1:26-cv-13917 (D. Mass.)
On August 28, the federal government petitioned the First Circuit to stay an August 27 temporary restraining order preventing the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) from enforcing new mail-in ballot regulations.
On September 8, the government filed a reply supporting a separate stay request arguing that the U.S. Postal Service’s rulemaking authority encompasses envelope design and reporting requirements for federal ballot mail.
League of Women Voters of Massachusetts v. Trump, No. 1:26-cv-11549 (D. Mass.)
On September 4, a federal district court dissolved the August 27 temporary restraining order and granted a preliminary injunction enjoining enforcement of the challenged USPS regulations.
United States Postal Service v. State of California | Trump v. League of Women Voters of Massachusetts,No. 26A305 (U.S.)
On September 6, the federal government filed a new application to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to stay the preliminary injunction issued September 4 and withdrew its earlier application concerning the TRO. The state challengers opposed the application on September 9.
Michigan
Americans for Citizen Voting v. Michigan Board of State Canvassers, No. 26A275 (U.S.)
On August 31, proponents of a proposed constitutional amendment requiring proof of citizenship to vote asked the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency injunction ordering Michigan officials to place the measure on the November ballot. The application states that the Board of State Canvassers voted to keep the petition off the ballot after a five-and-a-half-month review and that the Michigan Supreme Court had not acted on the proponents’ request for relief.
On September 3, Justice Kavanaugh declined the emergency application. Later that day, the Michigan Supreme Court also declined expedited review, holding that petitioners were not entitled to mandamus relief compelling the board to approve the petition.
Minnesota
Public Interest Legal Foundation v. Simon, No. 0:24-cv-01561 (D. Minn.)
On August 28, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a lower court’s merits ruling against the Public Interest Legal Foundation and remanded with instructions to dismiss its challenge to Minnesota’s exemption from the National Voter Registration Act’s records-disclosure requirement, holding the Foundation alleged only an informational injury and lacked standing.
Missouri
von Glahn v. Hoskins, No. 26AC-CC00440 (Mo. Cir. Ct., Cole Cnty.); Onder v. Missouri, No. 4:26-cv-01424 (E.D. Mo.)
On September 3, the state Supreme Court unanimously held that Secretary of State Hoskins had incorrectly deemed a referendum petition insufficient. The petition sought a statewide vote on the congressional map enacted by state legislators in 2025. The court ordered the map to be submitted to voters in November, holding that the state’s 2022 districts will govern the general election unless voters approve the 2025 map, even though the August primaries were conducted under the newer districts. On September 8, Justice Kavanaugh denied Missouri’s emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking a stay of the state Supreme Court ruling.
Shortly after the state Supreme Court ruling, U.S. Representative Bob Onder filed a federal district court action seeking a temporary restraining order that would require the state to use the 2025 map. The court granted the motion. Intervenor-defendants then sought a stay with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals which it denied, and then to the U.S. Supreme Court which the court granted this morning. This leaves the 2022 maps in effect for the upcoming election. After Secretary Hoskins instructed election officials to use the new map following the federal district court ruling, the Missouri Supreme Court ordered him to show cause why that did not violate its injunction and set a contempt hearing for today which just concluded.
The Democratic National Committee is expanding its nationwide “voter protection infrastructure” ahead of the November midterms, including creating its first internal litigation department and deploying tens of thousands of election observers across the country. The Republican National Committee is pursuing its own strategies ahead of November, including currently litigating nearly 180 active election integrity cases across 37 states.
The rate of mail ballots rejected for late arrival increased during recent primary and general elections in roughly a dozen states, including states with competitive congressional and statewide races. Although the U.S. Postal Service typically delivers more than 95% of mail ballots on time, election officials expressed concern that slower service could affect the November midterms and are expanding alternatives such as ballot drop boxes.
The Department of Justice charged five people in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and New Jersey with voting-related crimes. The DOJ alleges that four noncitizens voted illegally in the 2022 or 2024 elections. A U.S. citizen was also charged with allegedly participating in his wife’s illegal voting. Pennsylvania Department of State officials said they cooperated with the investigation. General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated in a letter to U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin that the U.S. Armed Forces have no plans to deploy federal troops or federalized National Guard personnel to polling places during the November elections. He also said there are no plans to use those personnel to seize ballots, voting machines, or other election materials.
Senator Richard Blumenthal announced an anonymous federal official’s disclosure alleging that the U.S. Postal Service’s new mail ballot portal would reject large batches of ballots if a single barcode could not be scanned or matched. Senator Blumenthal sent the disclosure to Postmaster General David Steiner and requested documents concerning the system, which the whistleblower claimed could delay batches containing tens of thousands of ballots.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to launch a “coordinated criminal voter fraud surge initiative” in nine states from early September through mid-October. Homeland Security Investigations will pursue leads, conduct field interviews, and support prosecutorial review, including by examining the voter histories of suspected noncitizens who may have registered or voted unlawfully. Only a handful of prosecutions have been filed so far.
Senator Alex Padilla and Representative Joe Morelle urged the DHS and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to restore funding for the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC). The lawmakers claim that the agencies failed to follow congressional funding instructions, leaving election offices without EI-ISAC’s security training.
Ben Ginsberg, Mark Schweiker, and Pat McCrory of RightCount argue that states should conduct and publicize rigorous voter-roll audits before the November midterms, contending that audits in Pennsylvania and North Carolina show both that illegal noncitizen registrations are exceedingly rare and that routine, transparent list maintenance can correct errors and strengthen public trust without federal overreach.
J. Christian Adams of the Public Interest Legal Foundation argues that Darwin Jonathan Rivera Flores’s arrest illustrates weaknesses in California’s elections, contending that lax registration review, poor voter roll maintenance, automatic registration, and mail ballots allow deceased and duplicate registrants to remain on the rolls and undermine public confidence.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger argues that Georgia has set the gold standard for citizenship verification by combining REAL ID, SAVE, jury affidavits, and regular voter roll audits to keep noncitizens out of the system and preserve access for eligible voters.
A group of election and emergency-management practitioners published the CORE Playbook, a framework for continuity and operational readiness across the election cycle.
The Grant Institute has potential openings for junior-level attorneys and others interested in the study of election administration and voting issues. Interested candidates should please email their resumes to info@grantdemocracy.org.