Iowa claims to find hundreds of noncitizens on voter rolls

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate said Friday 277 of the 2,176 individuals identified by his office to have their ballots challenged in the 2024 general election — or not quite 13% — have been confirmed to be noncitizens.

In a news release Friday, Pate said his office gained access to the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database and was able to confirm the citizenship status of the individuals listed by the office as “potential noncitizens.”

Pate had directed county auditors to challenge these voters’ ballots ahead of the Nov. 5, 2024 election because they had reported their noncitizen status to the Iowa Department of Transportation within the past 12 years and later registered to vote. Immigrant advocates pointed out that most of those voters had gained citizenship in the intervening years and complained they were going to be unfairly subjected to additional scrutiny in order to exercise their right to vote.

Pate said this directive was necessary because the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would not share access to the SAVE database and allow the state to confirm these individuals’ status. He and Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird filed a federal lawsuit in December accusing USCIS of unlawfully withholding information from the state as it worked to confirm the list voters’ citizenship status.

Though the federal government has now shared access to the SAVE database, Pate said the lawsuit and a legislative proposal by his office to contract with state and federal agencies and with private vendors, to verify registered voters’ citizenship status are “crucial next steps in confidently balancing voter participation with election integrity.”

“Maintaining election integrity is a team sport, and we need cooperation from multiple agencies, including the federal government,” Pate said in the news release. “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.”

The legislation, Senate File 550, has received committee approval in the Senate but has not yet been debated on the floor.

More than 87% of these individuals listed as potential noncitizens were U.S. citizens who were legally able to vote, but Pate said the new data confirms 12.7% were not citizens. Registering to vote and participating in Iowa elections is illegal for people without U.S. citizenship.

Additionally, Pate said his office found that 35 non-U.S. citizens cast ballots that were counted in the 2024 general election — 18 by normal ballots on Election Day, 15 by absentee ballots and two by provisional ballots. Five noncitizens’ ballots were rejected by Absentee and Special Voters Precinct boards. Another 22 noncitizens registered to vote in 2024 but did not participate in the 2024 general election.

Information on these individuals will be turned over to the state Attorney General’s office and the Iowa Department of Public Safety for investigation and next steps, according to the news release.