Iowa secretary of state blames feds for timing of citizenship audit

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate spoke at a news conference on election integrity and security efforts ahead of the Nov. 5 general election at the state’s State Emergency Operations Center in Johnston Oct. 30, 2024. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate said Wednesday that all legally eligible voters will be able to participate fairly in the 2024 general election as concerns linger about recent action to have potential noncitizens cast provisional ballots.

Pate and other state and federal officials held a news conference at the State Emergency Operations Center in Johnston, talking about election integrity and security steps taken to ensure this year’s election proceeds smoothly.

While the state conducts its usual preparations for securing the state’s elections, Pate has also taken additional steps he says will ensure noncitizens do not illegally participate in the Iowa election. An audit conducted by the Iowa Secretary of State’s office found 2,022 individuals who self-identified to the Iowa Department of Transportation or through other avenues as noncitizens in the past 12 years who have since registered to vote or voted.

These people will be required to cast provisional ballots in the upcoming election unless they provide proof of their citizenship at their polling location. When casting a provisional ballot, they will have seven days to provide additional proof of their citizenship to the absentee and special voters’ precinct board that will decide whether their vote will be counted.

Pate said at the news conference that the audit came in late October — after early voting had already began — because of a lack of cooperation from the federal government. The Iowa Secretary of State’s office had requested access to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, which Pate said has not been granted. Without this access, he said, the state is unable to confirm that these people have been naturalized as U.S. citizens.

“We want everyone to be able to vote, that is why none of them have been taken off the voter rolls,” Pate said. “But we do have do it. We do (have) an obligation to make sure that they are citizens now. That’s why we’ve asked the county auditors, through the poll workers, to challenge those votes allow them to confirm their citizenship status so that we can count their vote as well.”

Ashley Hunt Esquivel, communications director the secretary of state’s office, confirmed with reporters after the event that the office did not send the names of the 2,022 listed individuals to federal authorities for confirmation of their citizenship status, but only requested access to the SAVE database. Some auditors, including Linn County Auditor Joel Miller, said they have sent names of individuals listed as potential noncitizens in their jurisdiction to federal authorities for confirmation of citizenship status and received confirmation of some naturalized U.S. citizens being on the list.

Pate emphasized that none of the listed potential noncitizens — including 154 people who the secretary of state’s office said have listed themselves as noncitizens after registering to vote or participating in elections — have not been removed from Iowa’s voter rolls.

However, immigrant advocates like the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and some county auditors have said the process of listing some individuals as potential noncitizens could intimidate immigrants from coming to the polls, even when they have the legal right to vote as naturalized citizens.

The secretary of state’s office did not issue guidance to county auditors to contact these voters to let them know that they are listed as potential noncitizens and will have their vote challenged. While some county auditors, including Johnson County Auditor Erin Shane, have sent letters notifying individuals that they will need to bring additional citizenship verification, this process is not required or being conducted in all counties.

Pate said his office did not send out notification to these people on a statewide basis in order to avoid potentially discouraging these voters from participating.

“That’s why we haven’t been trying to reach out and intimidate them or cause them not to want to come vote prior to the election,” Pate said. “We want to make sure that folks come experience their their opportunity to vote, and allow us to try to sort out those details.”

The secretary of state also said Iowa’s case is distinct from those in states like Virginia and Alabama, where state officials have removed voters from rolls within the 90-day federal “quiet period” ahead of the election.

“We’ve taken none of them off the voter registration list, so nobody has been disenfranchised from their opportunity to come in and vote,” Pate said. “… Their vote will be cast, they’ll vote like everybody else. The only difference is, we’ll put it in an envelope, and we’ll have a week to sort it out, and hopefully the federal government will step up and give us some information we’ve asked.”

The U.S. Department of Justice has challenged Virginia and Alabama for removing alleged noncitizens from voter rolls too close to the election. While the Iowa secretary of state’s office has not removed these voters, the Iowa attorney general’s office released a statement Wednesday saying that the  U.S. Justice Department had contacted the state about noncitizens voting in the upcoming election.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, a Republican, released a statement criticizing the federal department for its action.

“State and federal law are clear: only American citizens can vote in American elections,” Bird said. “Now, just days before the 2024 election, the DOJ is attempting to undermine long-standing election integrity laws and pressure Iowa into letting noncitizens vote. But I have news for Biden and Harris: not on my watch. Every legal vote must count and not be canceled by an illegal vote. In Iowa, we will defend our election integrity laws and protect the vote.”

The U.S. Department of Justice declined comment on the issue.