U.S. District Courthouse for the Southern District of Iowa in Des Moines on Nov. 1, 2024. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
Federal officials confirmed Friday at a federal court hearing that there are 250 names on Iowa’s voter rolls that appear to be noncitizens, but said they have not shared the identities of those individuals with state officials.
U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Locher heard arguments in a case brought by the ACLU on behalf of naturalized citizens and the League of United Latin American Citizens, calling on Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate to reconsider his advice to provincial to revoke auditors’ ability to challenge the ballots of registered voters listed as potential noncitizens by the state office.
The lawsuit was filed late Wednesday against the state office and five county auditors. It challenges a list of 2,022 people registered to vote or who have voted and who have identified themselves with the state — mostly the Department of Transportation — as noncitizens over the past 12 years. Pate announced the list in late October after early voting was underway.
Pate said at a news conference Wednesday that he had instructed local election officials to challenge the qualifications of these voters because he was unable to obtain information from the federal government confirming their citizenship.
It is expected that a majority of the people on this list are naturalized citizens who have the right to vote in federal elections. But some — including the 250 named in court by federal government lawyers on Friday — are believed to still lack citizenship and be ineligible to register or vote in U.S. elections. Voting or registering to vote as a noncitizen constitutes a Class D felony in Iowa, punishable by up to five years in prison and fines of $750 to $7,500.
Earlier this week, Pate criticized the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service for not allowing Iowa access to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database to confirm the citizenship status of the named individuals, and for not allowing the USCIS office in Des Moines had allowed his data to be shared. completed review of all listed information with the state office.
In a statement Friday, Pate said it was critical to give the state access to this information ahead of next week’s Nov. 5 election.
“…According to the federal government, there are approximately 250 non-citizens registered to vote in Iowa,” Pate said in a news release. “Yet the federal government will not share this data with us, which is critical to ensuring that only eligible American citizens vote in our elections.”
Officials from the Iowa Attorney General’s office said USCIS communicated with the state about the list of potential noncitizens but needed to further review the information before sharing it with the state. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird issued a statement supporting the defense of the Secretary of State’s actions and the AG’s office’s work in court to “defend Iowa’s election integrity laws and protect the vote.”
“Every legal vote should count and not be nullified by an illegal vote by a non-citizen,” Bird said. “State and federal law are clear.”
Rita Bettis Austen, the legal director of the ACLU of Iowa, told reporters after the hearing that their organization does not have more information about the 250 people brought in by federal officials, but that this information does not invalidate their challenge.
“What I can say is that that is a much smaller number than the 2,022 people that the Secretary of State has ordered to contest as non-citizens,” Austen said. “So it is very clear that the Secretary understands that this list is composed primarily or entirely of American citizens who have exactly the same fundamental right to vote as the rest of Iowa’s American voters.”
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of four naturalized citizens, who do have the right to vote, and are on the state’s list whose eligibility is being challenged in the 2024 elections. Attorneys representing these citizens and LULAC argued that Pate violated the federal 90-day “quiet period” before the election by removing ineligible voters from the voter rolls with the directive, in addition to violating the constitutional rights of naturalized citizens to due process and equal protection.
Iowa Attorney General Eric Wessan argued in court that these arguments were invalid because no one suffered “irreparable harm” on the list, as no individuals were removed from the voter rolls during the process. Voters listed by the state office as potential noncitizens can still vote, but must bring proof of U.S. citizenship to cast a regular ballot, or cast a provisional ballot and later provide documentation to the absentee and the special polling station of the constituency. make their vote count.
Locher said he plans to make a ruling by Sunday.
