To begin with, the federal government has only those powers to protect voters which the states have expressly delegated to the feds via the Constitution. Such powers are evidenced by the 15th, 19th, 24th and 26th Amendments which expressly grant the feds the power to protect voters on the basis of race, sex, tax status and age respectively. Otherwise, the feds have no constitutional basis to prevent the states from prohibiting eligible citizens from voting on the basis of not being able to prove citizenship, or not being able to show valid photo ID for that matter.
Next, I don't understand why the states are asking the Election Assistance Commission for permission to do anything. More specifically, the Founding States had made the first numbered clauses in the Constitution, Sections 1-3 of Article I, to clarify that all federal legislative powers are vested in the elected members of Congress, not in so-called "independent federal regulatory agencies" which the Election Assistance Agency appears to be. So Congress has a constitutional monopoly on federal legislative / regulatory powers whether it wants it or not imo. And by delegating federal regulatory powers to unelected federal bureaucrats like those running the EAC, corrupt Congress is wrongly protecting federal legislative powers from the wrath of the voters in blatant defiance of the previously referenced statutes imo.
Again, why are the states asking the Election Assistance Commission for permission to do anything since the states have granted the feds the specific powers to police voting only on the criteria of race, sex, tax status and age?
States could disenfranchise food stamp and WIC recipients too, just like felons
All it takes is some Governors with stones