Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate said Tuesday he referred alleged noncitizens who voted in past elections for criminal prosecution, and he told county auditors to require about 2,000 people who may be citizens to vote a provisional ballot in this election.
Pate, a Republican, said his office reviewed Iowa’s 2.3 million voter records as part of a regular audit of the voter registration list. He said they discovered 87 people who voted in past elections and later “self-reported that they are not citizens” to the Iowa Department of Transportation. They also found 67 additional people who registered to vote and later self-reported that they are not citizens.
Those names are being sent to the Iowa attorney general and the Iowa Department of Public Safety for potential criminal prosecution, Pate said. Attorney General Brenna Bird announced last month she was leading the prosecution of a noncitizen who allegedly voted illegally in a city council election.
“It is a felony for noncitizens to either 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 of the law,” Pate said.
He said his office also flagged 2,022 people who told the DOT that they were not citizens and later voted or registered to vote. They could have become U.S. citizens before voting, according to Pate’s office.
“I have directed county auditors to have their poll workers challenge the ballots of any of these individuals during the 2024 general election,” Pate said. “All these individuals will be able to vote by casting a provisional ballot.”
A provisional ballot is not immediately counted. Rather, it is set aside until the voter can provide the information that county election officials are looking for. In this case, the voter would have to provide proof of citizenship to their county auditor by noon on Nov. 12 to have their vote count.
“It is absolutely critical that eligible citizens are able to vote and we are not disenfranchising any eligible voters,” Pate said in his news release.
We think that this will probably create a chilling effect with some people who have become citizens, or who may have always been citizens.Joe Henry, political director at the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa
Joe Henry, political director for the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa, said Pate’s announcement was politically motivated.
“We’re concerned about this,” Henry said. “We think that this will probably create a chilling effect with some people who have become citizens, or who may have always been citizens.”
LULAC Iowa has sued the state multiple times over various voting regulations. Henry said he is concerned the alleged self-reported noncitizens did not fully understand the questions they were asked. He said he is also concerned about the timing of Pate's announcement—just two weeks before Election Day.
Mark Stringer, executive director of the ACLU of Iowa, said he needs more information about Pate's audit and the reliability of the information that was used for it.
"We will closely review any action relating to the voter lists for compliance with court orders and federal law to ensure the full protection of voting rights for all eligible voters in Iowa," Stringer said.
When asked about noncitizen voting in previous interviews this election season, Pate said he did not think it was a widespread problem in Iowa.
“We’re going to keep looking at it and watching it, but I don’t see any massive voter fraud in that regard,” he said in a September interview with IPR.
“We work closely with the courts, we work with the DOT and we’re going to be working with the federal government on making sure we’re watching the potential for people who are here legally but maybe are not yet a U.S. citizen,” Pate said at the time. “That tends to be the area of challenge, because they perhaps don’t clearly understand you can’t vote yet.”
He said people in the country without authorization would have a hard time getting the ID necessary to vote in Iowa, and they likely don’t want to draw attention to themselves by voting.
Some other Republican-led states pushed new efforts this year to find and remove noncitizens from their voter rolls, and they wrongly flagged eligible voters. Former President Donald Trump has been baselessly claiming that Democrats are urging noncitizens to vote in the 2024 election. No evidence has been found of a widespread problem with noncitizens voting in the U.S.
Pate also said Iowa officials will be pushing the federal government to give the state “the tools to know with certainty before a noncitizen is able to register and vote in Iowa elections.” He said he will work with the Iowa Legislature to strengthen voting laws.