Iowa’s DES MOINES (AP) The Biden administration was sued on Tuesday by Iowa officials who wanted access to data regarding the citizenship status of almost 2,000 registered voters they had questioned in the weeks before the 2024 election.
After state election authorities compared voter records to a list of individuals who declared themselves noncitizens with the state’s Department of Transportation, the complaint describes a back and forth with the federal government. Some of the 2,176 names could have become naturalized citizens in the intervening period because the great majority of them had later registered to vote or cast ballots.
According to the complaint, Secretary of State Paul Pate’s office asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for information on those people’s citizenship status but never received it. On Tuesday, the Associated Press emailed DHS to request comment on the case.
In order to guarantee that no Iowan’s vote was nullified by an unlawful, noncitizen vote, the State had to depend on the best flawed data available due to the failure of federal authorities, according to a joint statement from Attorney General Brenna Bird and Pate.
Early voting had already begun two weeks prior to Election Day when Pate instructed county elections officials to contest those voters’ ballots and require them to submit a provisional ballot.
Then, on October 30, the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa filed a lawsuit against Pate on behalf of four voters who were listed but are naturalized citizens, claiming that Pate violated their right to vote and casting doubt on the veracity of the DOT’s data. The federal judge refused their motion on November 3 to halt the ballot challenges.
Although it is against the law for non-U.S. citizens to cast ballots in federal elections, Iowa and a few other states claim to have found dozens of such cases, but there is no proof that this is happening frequently.
Pate’s office forwarded the names to law enforcement and Bird’s office for inquiry and possible prosecution because some Iowans had registered to vote or cast ballots before declaring themselves noncitizens to the DOT. However, Pate’s detractors claim that because the DOT data has shown itself to be untrustworthy, even those people may have been mistakenly classified as noncitizens.
No further details regarding the number of voters who cast ballots, had their citizenship status finally verified, or who turned out to vote have been made public by Pate’s office.At least 500 of the identified people had their citizenship verified and their votes counted, according to the Des Moines Register, which based its findings on preliminary data gathered from 97 of the state’s 99 counties.
According to the Register, 74 more ballots were turned down, primarily because the voters failed to show proof of citizenship.
According to the Register’s statistics from county auditors, the vast majority of those on Pate’s list did not cast ballots in the 2024 election.
Despite the fact that noncitizen voting is uncommon in American elections, President-elect Donald Trump and other Republicans have focused their political rhetoric this year on their concerns that it could taint elections.
Pate attempted to distinguish Iowa from other states, like Virginia, where more than 1,600 voters were removed from the voter registration list in the last two months as part of a program implemented by Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin’s executive order on August 7. This was because no voter had been removed from Iowa’s lists.
Early in October, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Virginia along with a number of private organizations, claiming that state election officials had broken the 90-day quiet period before elections under federal law. The conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Virginia could proceed.
Without access to federal immigration records, Pate stated that the DOT information was the only list at our disposal prior to the election on November 5.
This procedure is being rebalanced. Voting should be accessible to all. He claimed that’s why none of them have been removed from the voter rolls. However, we do have a responsibility to ensure that they are now citizens.
The Associated Press, 2024. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. It is prohibited to publish, broadcast, rewrite, or redistribute this content without authorization.
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