SHERYL KORNMAN

Proposition 200 - the ballot initiative aimed at discouraging illegal immigration, is "legally challenge-proof," said supporter Kathy McKee the day after Arizona voters approved the measure by a 56-44 percent margin.

There were no legal challenges filed yesterday.

"I'm curious how they're gonna challenge it." McKee said yesterday.

The measure failed in southern Arizona's Pima and Santa Cruz counties.

"I was really, really surprised, because we had a lot of (petition) signatures from down there," McKee said.

She said it was "politicians who sold (voters) out" with "scare tactics and lies."

But in Maricopa County, where pro-Prop. 200 campaigning was steady and hard, "56 per cent didn't buy the lies and went ahead and voted for it," McKee said.

McKee is chairwoman of Protect Arizona Now, the group that circulated petitions to get The Arizona Taxpayer & Citizen Protection Measure on the ballot.

The law, which has to be approved by the U.S. Department of Justice, would require people to show proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote.

And it bars noncitizens from nonfederally mandated state and local services. Just what those services are was not specified in the ballot measure.

McKee said Proposition 200 is necessary to keep illegal immigrants from getting welfare and from voting.

She thinks some of the support from voters came Tuesday from naturalized citizens.

She speculated that they voted for Proposition 200 because they're competing with illegal immigrants for jobs.

When the new law might take effect is uncertain.

First, county recorders must certify their votes and the Arizona secretary of state must certify the election results by Nov. 22.

The new law would then go to the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, which would review it to make sure it does not discourage minority voting. No state law can violate the tenets of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

After that, state and local agencies that would enforce the new law would have to write procedures for carrying out the law.

Questions that would have to be resolved include:

How will they check citizenship documents from people registering to vote and from those applying for public state and local benefits that aren't federally mandated?

Which citizenship documents would be acceptable?

The new law also would make it a misdemeanor for public employees to fail to report illegal immigrants to federal authorities.

Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., who won re-election Tuesday, said the pro-Proposition 200 vote shows Arizonans' frustration with Congress on the illegal immigration issue.

Both Grijalva and Sen. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., who also won re-election Tuesday, said something must be done at the federal level to ease the federal border issue.

Kolbe said the administration in Washington must take the lead on illegal immigration.

Tucson Citizen Staff Writer C.T. Revere contributed to this article.