DES MOINES, Iowa — On Tuesday, officials in Iowa initiated legal action against the Biden administration to obtain details regarding the citizenship status of over 2,000 registered voters that they had raised concerns about in the lead-up to the 2024 election.
The lawsuit highlights ongoing communication between state election authorities and the federal government. Iowa election officials had compared their voter rolls with a list of individuals who had identified themselves as noncitizens to the state’s Department of Transportation (DOT). Of the 2,176 individuals on this list, a significant number had either registered to vote or cast their votes, suggesting that some of them might have become naturalized citizens since their initial declaration.
Secretary of State Paul Pate’s office sought information from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regarding these individuals’ citizenship statuses but claim they did not receive any response. A joint statement from Pate and Attorney General Brenna Bird indicated that the lack of coordination from federal officials compelled the state to rely on the available — albeit imperfect — data, which they used to protect the integrity of the voting process.
As early voting commenced, approximately two weeks before the election date, Pate instructed county election officials to challenge the ballots of voters identified on the list, advising them to cast provisional ballots instead.
In reaction, the ACLU of Iowa filed a lawsuit against Pate on October 30. The suit represented four individuals who are naturalized citizens but found their names on the suspect list. The plaintiffs argued that the DOT’s data was flawed and that Pate’s actions infringed upon their voting rights. A federal judge denied their plea to halt the ballot challenges on November 3.
While it is against the law for non-U.S. citizens to participate in federal elections, there is little evidence supporting claims of widespread fraud, despite certain states, including Iowa, claiming to have identified various cases.
Some individuals in Iowa had registered or voted before declaring themselves as noncitizens to the DOT. Consequently, Pate’s office forwarded those names to law enforcement and Attorney General Bird’s office for inquiries and potential legal actions. Critics of Pate have argued that even some of these individuals might have been incorrectly flagged as noncitizens due to the unreliability of the DOT data.
Pate’s office has not disclosed further details about how many of those challenged individuals actually voted or had their citizenship verified. However, preliminary data from 97 of Iowa’s 99 counties indicated that at least 500 of the identified individuals successfully confirmed their citizenship and their votes were counted.
The Des Moines Register reported that an additional 74 ballots were rejected, primarily because those voters failed to provide evidence of their citizenship status. According to the same report, the majority of individuals on Pate’s list did not participate in the 2024 election.
Concerns regarding the integrity of elections due to potential noncitizen voting have been prominent in political discussions this year, especially among President-elect Donald Trump and other Republican leaders, despite such incidents being infrequent across the country.
Pate sought to highlight that no voters in Iowa had been removed from the registration lists, differentiating Iowa’s approach from states like Virginia, where over 1,600 voters were purged from the rolls recently under a Republican governor’s orders.
The Justice Department and a consortium of private organizations filed a lawsuit against Virginia, claiming unlawful actions by state election officials had violated the federal law’s 90-day “quiet period” before elections. Nevertheless, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Virginia to proceed with its actions.
Prior to the election on November 5, Pate stated that the DOT data was the only information accessible to the state without federal immigration records. He emphasized the balance his office aimed to achieve, expressing a desire for all citizens to be able to vote while ensuring that those participating are indeed citizens.