Monday’s argument before the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals didn’t make the Kansas and Arizona voter registration dispute look any closer to a final resolution.

The case focuses on the states’ desire to have the federal voter registration forms altered to reflect the states’ requirement that proof of citizenship be presented as part of the registration process. The court case had been expedited in hopes of having the issue settled before the Nov. 4 general election, but the prospects for that seem slim.

The appeals judges focused primarily on the role of the federal Election Assistance Commission in making changes to the registration forms. An earlier court decision determined that states could “request” the commission to add state-specific requirements to the federal form, which requires a signed statement that the voter is a U.S. citizen but no supporting documents like a birth certificate or passport.

The problem is that the Election Assistance Commission currently has no members because President Obama’s appointments to the commission have been blocked in Congress. Staff members of the EAC rejected the Kansas and Arizona request for changes in the federal voter registration form, but the federal court questioned whether a decision made without input from actual commission members is valid.

If the staff’s decision isn’t valid and the courts won’t go over the EAC’s head to decide this issue, Kansas and Arizona are in what Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who argued the case on behalf of both states, accurately depicted as a “catch-22” situation. “Here’s the process, but the process is impossible,” he said.

Appeals Judge Carlos Lucero expressed some frustration at the situation during Monday’s argument. “A political decision has been made by the political branches that they don’t wish to appoint commissioners to the Elections Assistance Commission,” he said. “All of a sudden the courts are asked to step into inherently political questions and make political decisions.”

His frustration is justified to an extent. The situation on the EAC clearly is a political issue, but the right of Americans to vote in democratic elections is not. Allowing voting rights to be compromised by political maneuvering undercuts a basic constitutional right. If the courts won’t rise above the politics and rule on the validity of Arizona and Kansas voter registration laws, who will?

Both Kansas and Arizona currently are operating under a dual system that allows voters registered with the federal form to cast ballots in congressional elections but not state and local races. This is an untenable situation that must be resolved. Hopefully, the federal courts won’t back away from that responsibility.