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Iowa’s Secretary of State says non-citizens may have voted in the election

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Iowa’s Secretary of State says non-citizens may have voted in the election

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Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate’s office says dozens of people voted or registered to vote in Iowa in past elections despite being ineligible because they said they weren’t citizens.

Pate, a Republican, said 87 people reported to the Iowa Department of Transportation that they were not citizens after they voted. Another 67 people reported to the DOT that they were not citizens after registering to vote but not voting.

Those individuals self-reported to the Iowa DOT that they were not citizens when they applied for a driver’s license or did other business with the DOT. The DOT recently sent its list of self-identified noncitizens to the secretary of state’s office, which checked the names against Iowa voter rolls, said Ashley Hunt Esquivel, Pate’s spokeswoman.

Pate’s office has forwarded those 154 names to the Iowa Attorney General’s Office and the Iowa Department of Public Safety “for possible prosecution.”

“It is a crime for non-citizens to vote or register to vote, and we will work with the authorities to ensure that those who break the law are prosecuted to the fullest extent,” Pate said in his statement.

First-degree election misconduct, which includes crimes such as registration fraud and voter fraud, is a Class D felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $7,500.

Joe Enriquez Henry, political director of the League of United Latino Citizens of Iowa, said the secretary of state’s announcement could create fear among Iowa’s Latino and immigrant communities.

“It seems to me that it is politically motivated,” he said. “It will create a chilling effect among poll workers and those who are new citizens.”

Henry said it’s possible that some voters who were flagged as noncitizens by the DOT may actually be citizens who didn’t understand the question about whether there was a language barrier when filling out the DOT form.

“We don’t know for sure if they were ineligible because they were undocumented or if they were actual citizens and didn’t understand the question they were being asked,” Henry said. “We don’t know. And that really worries me.”

None of those votes were cast in the 2024 general election, Hunt Esquivel said. Early voting is underway in Iowa, but absentee ballots that have already been cast are still sealed.

Iowa’s voter database goes back to 2000, so it’s possible some of the alleged noncitizen votes could be from then, Hunt Esquivel said, while some could be as recent like the June 2024 primary election.

Hunt Esquivel said he does not have a breakdown of when the votes occurred.

Pate’s office marks 2,000 noncitizens who registered or voted but may have become naturalized citizens

Another 2,022 people reported to the DOT that they were not citizens, then either registered to vote or voted, according to Pate’s statement.

Those people may have become naturalized citizens before voting or registering to vote, Hunt Esquivel said. This would mean that they did not commit any crime.

Pate said he has ordered county auditors to have his election workers challenge the ballots of any people identified as potential noncitizens if they show up to vote in the 2024 election, which would require them to issue a provisional ballot.

“We don’t want to disenfranchise any eligible voter,” Hunt Esquivel said. “Provisional voting allows all of these people to vote.”

Provisional ballots must be reviewed by the county’s special absentee voter district board after the election is over. And a voter who casts a provisional ballot in this way will have to prove his citizenship to the board in order for it to be counted.

Adams County Auditor Becky Bissell, who chairs the Iowa State Association of County Auditors, said county auditors only became aware of Pate’s concerns Tuesday morning and were still looking more information

“We are also still awaiting further guidance and direction from the secretary of state,” he said in an email. “Ultimately, we will comply with the direction that Secretary Pate advises.”

Henry said it’s common for groups like the League of Women Voters to register people to vote at naturalization ceremonies when they become citizens.

“I really think it’s very unlikely that non-citizens will register to vote,” he said. “And again, there are already safeguards in place to determine eligibility.”

Why is the Secretary of State making this announcement now?

When asked why the secretary of state was sharing this information two weeks before the election, Hunt Esquivel said the office recently received the relevant records from the DOT.

“We are constantly reviewing and auditing our voter registration lists,” he said. “We recently received this information from the DOT. Non-citizens should not vote in Iowa elections, and this information is critical to protecting the integrity of the 2024 election.”

Mark Stringer, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, said the ACLU will monitor any action related to Iowa’s voter rolls to ensure voting rights are protected.

“At this time, we need more information about the Secretary of State’s audit and the reliability of the information it relied on to conduct it,” Stringer said in a statement. “We will closely review any action related to voter rolls to comply with court orders and federal law to ensure full protection of voting rights for all eligible voters in Iowa.”

Pate has repeatedly praised the safeguards of Iowa’s election system

Pate has repeatedly said that Iowa’s voting system has a good record of integrity and that there is no evidence of widespread fraud.

More: Iowa election officials test voting machines to ensure accuracy. Here’s how they do it:

“I can tell you that I am very confident that we do not have massive vote fraud by non-citizen voters,” he told reporters on Oct. 3. “But again, we don’t want one or two, and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure those things don’t happen, too.”

Asked about the issue on a Sept. 20 episode of “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS, Pate outlined the steps Iowa is taking to prevent noncitizens from voting.

“Well, the law clearly says you have to be an American citizen to vote. Let’s start with that,” Pate said. “We have voter ID. So we’re establishing a baseline where you have to prove who you are. We’re also working with our partners, we’re working with the court system, there are various partners that help us identify people who are here. legally but not US citizens.”

On the same show, Bissell said Adams County has had no problems with non-citizens trying to register to vote.

“We have all the same procedures that Secretary Pate was talking about,” he said. “And we check with the DOT and other state agencies to make sure that all voters who are registered are able and eligible voters.”

Convictions of voter misconduct are rare in Iowa

Convictions of voter misconduct are rare in Iowa. There have been only 10 convictions for election misconduct under Iowa law between Jan. 1, 2020, and early Oct. 2024, according to data provided by Hunt Esquivel.

Election misconduct under Iowa Code Chapter 39A includes crimes such as filing a false voter registration application, destroying or interfering with an absentee voter’s ballot, voting more than once, voting when the person knows they are not allowed to vote, cast a fraudulent ballot, defraud. another person’s vote, intimidating, threatening or coercing a voter, bribing a voter and tampering with voting equipment.

Hunt’s data did not specify what crimes the convictions were for.

Attorney General Brenna Bird is prosecuting an alleged non-citizen voting case. A Marshalltown man who is a legal resident of the United States but is not a citizen is accused of illegally registering to vote and voting in a special election for Marshalltown City Council on June 16.

He has pleaded not guilty.

Federally, Kim Phuong Taylor, the wife of a Republican Woodbury County supervisor, was convicted of 52 counts of voter fraud last fall for illegally filling out ballots and other forms for members of the Vietnamese community to help her husband win the election. .

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the record. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

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