DES MOINES, Iowa — Four voters and a Hispanic civil rights group have sued Iowa’s top elections official after he ordered election workers to challenge the ballots of people who may be naturalized citizens, claiming the state violated their rights in its effort to deter ineligible non-residents from voting illegally.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa filed a legal challenge late Wednesday in federal court on behalf of four people identified by Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate as registered voters who may not be citizens. According to the complaint, they are naturalized citizens.
Pate’s office said last week it has provided county auditors with a list of 2,022 people who told the state Department of Transportation they were not citizens but then registered to vote or vote. Because these individuals may have become naturalized citizens over time, Pate’s office told county election officials to challenge their ballot and have them cast a provisional ballot instead.
They would have seven days — one more than normal because of a federal holiday — to prove their citizenship so their ballot is counted.
According to the complaint, a new voter registered last year, a day after becoming a U.S. citizen.
“Yet he was placed on the Secretary of State’s secret list and wrongfully subjected to an investigation and election challenge for following the law and exercising his right to vote,” the complaint said.
The ACLU also represents the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa.
It is illegal for non-US citizens to vote in federal elections, but there is no evidence that this is happening in large numbers, although Iowa and some other states have identified dozens of such cases.
Before the lawsuit was filed, Pate told reporters at a news conference Wednesday that the DOT list is the “only list we have available” without access to federal immigration data.
“We balance this process. We want everyone to be able to vote. That is why none of them have been removed from the voters’ list,” he said. But “we are obliged to ensure that they are now citizens.”
With early voting in full swing and just days to go before the Nov. 5 election, the lawsuit asks that the list be rescinded and that voters on it not be challenged on this basis. It alleges that Iowa election officials are undermining voting rights and discriminating against naturalized citizens by treating these voters differently than others in violation of their constitutional right to equal protection.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said in a statement Wednesday ahead of the ACLU’s lawsuit that the U.S. Department of Justice “called the state in an attempt to pressure Iowa to allow noncitizens to vote. ”
“Every legal vote must count and not be canceled by an illegal vote,” she said. “In Iowa, we will defend our election integrity laws and protect the vote.”
In an email, a Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.
The Associated Press left email messages with Pate and Bird on Thursday seeking comment on the ACLU’s lawsuit.
Pate sought to distinguish Iowa from other states, such as Virginia, where more than 1,600 voters were removed from the voter registration list over the past two months in a program enacted by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Aug. 7.
The Justice Department and a coalition of private groups previously sued Virginia in October, alleging that state election officials violated federal law’s 90-day “quiet period” before the election.
The National Voter Registration Act requires that silent period so that legitimate voters are not removed from the list due to bureaucratic errors or last-minute errors that cannot be quickly corrected.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority said Wednesday that Virginia could proceed, rejecting a federal judge who said the state’s purge was illegal. A federal appeals court had previously allowed the judge’s order to remain in effect.
In a similar lawsuit in Alabama, a federal judge this month ordered the state to restore the voting eligibility of more than 3,200 voters deemed ineligible noncitizens. Testimony from state officials in that case showed that about 2,000 of the 3,251 voters who were made inactive were actually legally registered citizens.