A federal judge ruled that Iowa election officials may challenge the ballots of registered voters who may be noncitizens.
The decision comes as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Iowa alleged on behalf of four naturalized citizens that Secretary of State Paul Pate’s directive to verify voters’ citizenship status violated the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause.
“The Secretary’s directive severely burdens the right to vote for Affected Voters, who will be forced to prove their citizenship—likely without advance knowledge that they will have to do so—in order to exercise their fundamental right to vote,” the lawsuit said. “These burdens go far beyond what is required of all other registered voters in Iowa, and what is required under state and federal law. The Voter Purge Program subjects Affected Voters to investigation, fear of law enforcement, and the burdens of having their eligibility challenged in order to exercise their fundamental right to vote.”
U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher found that “some portion” of the 2,176 names on Pate’s list are “indeed ineligible to vote due to non-citizenship.”
“If the Court were to order a ‘retraction’ of the list or otherwise stop his efforts to challenge those voters, local election officials arguably would be required to let those voters cast a ballot despite their ineligibility to do so,” Locher wrote. “It goes without saying that this would be inappropriate.”
In a statement, Pate declared that the ruling was a “win for Iowa’s election integrity,” emphasizing that “U.S. elections are for U.S. citizens, and ensuring only eligible voters participate in Iowa’s election process is essential to protecting the integrity of the vote.”
“As stated in the official ruling, it is undisputed that there are a number of noncitizens who are registered to vote, and awarding the injunction would force local election officials to permit those individuals to vote,” Pate added.
