35 Iowans without U.S. citizenship voted in 2024, state’s top elections official says

DES MOINES — There were 35 votes cast by Iowans who are not full U.S. citizens — and thus were ineligible to vote — in the 2024 general election, the state’s top elections official said Thursday.

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate has been attempting to identify Iowans without full U.S. citizenship since before the November election, and he has proposed legislation that would allow his office to revoke the voter registration of any Iowan whose citizenship his office cannot confirm.

Shortly before the November election, the Republican secretary distributed to local elections officials a list of more than 2,000 names of Iowans whose citizenship his office was unable to confirm. He instructed local officials to have poll workers challenge the ballots of any individual on the list who attempted to vote. They were to cast provisional ballots, after which they would have a week to provide documentation of their citizenship.

Despite that order, in the 2024 general election in Iowa, according to Pate:

All 62 Iowans will be referred to the Iowa Attorney General’s Office and Iowa Department of Public Safety for investigation and next steps, the Secretary of State’s Office said. The Iowa Attorney General has exclusive authority over prosecuting elections crimes under a state law passed in 2023.

“State and federal law are clear: only American citizens can vote,” Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said in a statement. “Law enforcement will first investigate these cases of alleged illegal noncitizen voting and registration. If charges are warranted, those cases will be referred to my office for prosecution to enforce our election integrity laws and ensure Iowans have elections that they can count on.”

Iowans when registering to vote sign a document affirming they are naturalized U.S. citizens and thus eligible to vote. But the process does not require documentation that would verify a prospective voter’s citizenship status. It is a state crime to knowingly provide false information on the voter registration form.

Registering to vote or voting in Iowa while not having full U.S. citizenship are Class D felonies, punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of $750 to $7,500.

The Secretary of State’s Office does not yet know how many total ballots were challenged during the November elections, and the office is not yet releasing county-level data while the investigation is ongoing, a spokeswoman said.

Nearly 1.7 million votes were cast in the 2024 general election in Iowa, according to state data.

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Pate said his office was able to confirm the status of the more than 2,000 Iowans whose citizenship his office was unsure of before the election. Pate said his office was granted access to a federal program that stores information about noncitizens on public assistance programs. It is called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program or SAVE.

Pate said his office was able to identify 277 Iowans who are not U.S. citizens and who have voted or are registered to vote. That list includes individuals who voted, attempted to vote or registered to vote in previous election cycles.

Pate said gaining access to the federal program enabled his office to reach that number out of a list of 2,176 Iowans whose citizenship his office could not independently verify.

Pate had sought access to the SAVE list before the election, but was denied by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Office in Washington, D.C. after the Des Moines office said it had the data Pate sought. The federal agency told the state in an email it could not release the information to the state because the list of names would “require extensive research and review by multiple oversight offices,” according to court documents.

The Iowa Secretary of State’s and Attorney General’s offices have sued the federal government, asking the courts to require U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to “promptly” provide immigration and citizenship status to Pate’s office.

In a statement, Pate restated frustration with the federal government and optimism for his proposed legislation that is being considered by state lawmakers.

“Maintaining election integrity is a team sport, and we need cooperation from multiple agencies, including the federal government,” Pate said in the statement. “We are hopeful that between our legislative proposals and this lawsuit, we will have the tools we need to verify voter eligibility during the voter registration processes, allowing us to ensure in the future, only eligible Iowa voters are participating in Iowa elections.”

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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