The Supremes and Vote Suppression in Arizona

I have a piece up at the Prospect about yesterday’s oral arguments concerning Arizona’s vote suppression initiative, which is (correctly) being challenged as inconsistent with the Motor Votor Act. (SPOLIER: Scalia assumes the existence of imaginary voter fraud while sarcastically dismissing actually existing voter suppression.) The bottom line:

Arizona’s latest attempt to interfere with federal law is particularly problematic given that it concerns the right to vote. Voting is a field in which greater uniformity is a particular virtue. The fact that standards for registration and voting vary not only between states but within states represents “local control” fetishism at its most inane. State and local administration of voting isn’t merely inefficient; the purpose and effect of this decentralization has been to disenfranchise poor and/or minority voters. In this case, Congress appropriately acted to create more uniform and streamlined standards for vote registration. Arizona should not be allowed to contradict federal law and invite other states to similarly disenfranchise voters.