Records: Paul Pate’s search for potential noncitizen voters in Iowa started in July

DES MOINES — A quest to prevent noncitizens from voting illegally in the 2024 general election in Iowa, conducted by the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office, began in July at a national conference of state elections officials, according to new court documents.

But the Secretary of State’s Office did not reach out to federal immigration officials to request their help in the efforts — the feds did not get involved until they read late last month about the state’s actions, according to the court filings.

The newly filed documents shed light on when and why Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate started the process of addressing Iowa’s voter data, a process that resulted in his directive that local elections officials must automatically challenge the ballots of 2,176 Iowans whose citizenship is unclear to Pate’s office if they vote in the 2024 elections.

Iowa chapters of the ACLU and LULAC sued Pate’s office over the directive; a federal judge Sunday rejected the lawsuit, allowing the ballot challenges to continue.

During a hearing last week, U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher pressed an attorney for the state on when and why Pate’s effort to address potential noncitizen voting began. Locher instructed the state’s attorney to address the matter in filings after the hearing.

One of the new filings, made public Sunday, was a sworn testimony from Michael Ross, the Chief of Staff and Deputy Iowa Secretary of State. Ross testified in writing that he attended the National Association of Secretaries of State’s summer conference, which was held July 9-12 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

During the conference, Ross said he observed a presentation from Georgia officials about their use of the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, which verifies immigration and citizenship status of applicants for government benefits or licenses, to verify the citizenship of registered voters. But Georgia officials said the process could take four or five months.

Ross said when he returned to Iowa, he communicated with state elections officials in Ohio about their alternative process of verifying registered voters’ citizenship. Those colleagues, Ross said, described using that state’s transportation department information to verify citizenship. Ross said after “multiple” discussions with Iowa Department of Transportation officials, he determined that agency had information that could assist the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office in verifying U.S. citizenship.

The Iowa Secretary of State’s Office formally requested information from the Iowa DOT on Oct. 1 and received the response on Oct. 7. Ross said he and staff then cross-checked the Iowa DOT information with voter records in the Secretary of State’s Office.

On Oct. 22 — after early voting already had started — the Secretary of State’s Office sent a notice to each of Iowa’s 99 county auditors with a list of 2,176 names whose citizenship the state could not confirm. Pate instructed the auditors to order poll workers to automatically challenge the ballots of any individual on the list who attempted to vote in the 2024 election and require them to cast a provisional ballot.

Voters who cast provisional ballots have until Nov. 12 to provide documentation proving their U.S. citizenship to have their ballot counted.

Ross said the Iowa field office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services contacted the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office late on Oct. 24. In a message, a federal official said he had been reading about Pate’s order and offered to look up the individuals on the state’s list and confirm their citizenship status. The next day, Ross said he provided the state’s information to the field office.

On Oct. 28, the field office agent informed Ross that the review of the state’s list was complete, Ross said. The federal agent told Ross the review found 12 percent of the names on the list were not U.S. citizens and thus are ineligible to vote.

But the next day, the services’ Washington, D.C. office informed the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office that the information could not be released because “it would require extensive review and oversight,” Ross testified.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has not responded to multiple requests for comment. An Iowa Secretary of State spokeswoman said the office had “no update to share” Monday morning and did not respond to a request for an update Monday afternoon.

During last week’s hearing, the state’s attorney said the federal agency indicated it could get the information to Iowa elections officials by Tuesday.

In recent days, Iowa Republican U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst have pressed the federal agency to deliver the information to Iowa elections officials.

Linn County Auditor Joel Miller said his office, in partnership with the Linn County Sheriff’s Office and federal immigration officials, has confirmed that 134 of the 150 individuals on the state’s list from Linn County are U.S. citizens.

Miller said that means, at most, his office will challenge 16 individuals’ ballots if they vote early or show up to vote Tuesday.

Pate said his review also found that 87 Iowans without U.S. citizenship voted illegally in recent elections — going back roughly 20 years — and another 67 illegally registered to vote.

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

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