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PHOENIX — A federal appellate court on Thursday blocked enforcement of a 2004 state law requiring Arizona voters to present identification when casting ballots and to submit proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

Witthout comment, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a motion by critics of the law for an injunction that bars enforcement of the law's voter-identification requirements during the Nov. 7 general election.

It also bars enforcement of a requirement that people produce specified proof of citizenship to register to vote. The deadline to register to vote in the general election is midnight Monday.

Secretary of State Jan Brewer, who has defended the law as a protection against voter fraud, said she's asked state Attorney General Terry Goddard to seek an immediate reversal.

"I'm very concerned about the confusion that this potentially will create in the upcoming election, with the retraining of all the poll workers and the re-education of the public so close to Nov. 7."

The 9th Circuit order was issued by two of the San Francisco-based court's judges. It said the injunction would remain in effect pending the court's resolution of the plaintiffs' appeals, a process that a lawyer for the challengers said would take months.

"This order would certainly run past the Nov. 7 general election," said the attorney, David Rosenbaum.

The law, which appeared on the 2004 ballot as Proposition 200, requires that voters at polling places produce government-issued picture ID or two pieces of other non-photo identification specified by the law.

Randy Pullen, the former chairman of Yes on Proposition 200 and currently the Republican Party's national committeeman for Arizona, blamed the decision on "activist" judges in the 9th Circuit.

"It shows you why it's so important to have President Bush appointing judges that aren't going to decide they know more about what the people want than the people do," Pullen said.

Ever since it passed in 2004, Arizona's voter ID law has been challenged in federal court by numerous groups including the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, the League of Women Voters, the Navajo Nation, the Arizona Civil Liberties Union, the Arizona Advocacy Network and the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

The challengers contend the voting provisions would disenfranchise numerous voters, particularly among minorities and the elderly, and that requiring voters to acquire and produce identification would be burdensome in time, money and effort. They also contend it hinders voter registration drives.

A U.S. District Court judge in Phoenix on Sept. 11 refused to prohibit election officials from enforcing the registration and polling-place identification requirements, and its provisions were enforced one day later during the state's Sept. 12 primary election.

Other parts of the 2004 law dealt with ineligibility of illegal immigrants to receive some government services and benefits.

Brewer said the people of Arizona voted overwhelmingly to require identification at the polls. She said the first statewide use of the requirement in the September primary "went off without a hitch" and the decision couldn't have come at a worse time.

"One million of them voted for it and will be very concerned and alarmed that all of a sudden it has been changed," Brewer said. "So we have a huge job in front of us . . . to work very diligently to see this is overturned as soon as possible and implemented as it was intended by the voters of Arizona.

In Missouri, the state Supreme Court judges raised many questions Wednesday as they considered the constitutionality of a new state law requiring people to show photo identification to vote.

A lower judge threw out the law last month, saying it infringes on the fundamental right to vote.

Judges homed in on the cost to obtain a birth certificate, one of the documents that can be used to get a state identification card or driver's license. In Missouri, a certified copy costs $15. A passport also can work to get a license or ID card, or to cast a ballot under the challenged law, but those cost more.

"They all cost money," said Judge Richard Teitelman.