If the dumbshit hadn't pulled Iowa out of ERIC he wouldn't have this problem:
Iowa voters’ registration status could be revoked if state elections officials cannot confirm a voter’s U.S. citizenship under legislation proposed by Iowa’s top elections official.
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate plans to propose the measure as part of a package of bills he plans to introduce to state lawmakers when they convene starting Monday for the 2025 session of the Iowa Legislature.
Pate deployed a similar tactic during the November 2024 general election. His office cross-checked state voter registration and voting activity information with state transportation department documents to produce a list of over 2,000 Iowans whose citizenship the office could not confirm.
Pate then instructed local elections workers to automatically challenge the ballots of any Iowans on that list. Hundreds of Iowans’ ballots were challenged, and some cases of noncitizen voters being registered or having voted in previous elections were discovered by county elections officials.
Critics of Pate’s directive pointed out that his list could be working on outdated information because some state Department of Transportation documentation is several years old. Pate acknowledged the potential for outdated information and attempted to obtain additional citizenship information from federal immigration agencies, but was rebuffed.
Pate and Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird have sued the federal government over its refusal to share the requested citizenship information.
Pate plans to introduce legislation that would allow the Iowa Secretary of State to cancel the voter registration of Iowans whose citizenship is not confirmed. He said he would use the same process and state information that he used during the last election, and added that he hopes for more robust cooperation from the federal government to resolve cases where an Iowan's U.S. citizenship is unclear.
According to Pate’s office, the legislation would help maintain clean and up-to-date voter registration lists, balancing voter participation with election integrity.
“The end game here, we want to establish that you’re eligible to vote in Iowa when you register. We don’t really want to put all that burden at the tail end when they’re going in to vote,” Pate said. “And that’s citizenship, that’s residency, that’s those the question of you are who you say you are. Those things are what we want to do early in the process.”
Iowa law allows voters to register on Election Day at the polls, provided the voter supplies the required documentation: state-approved proof of identification — like a driver’s license or other state-issued ID — and residence, like a utility bill or paycheck.
Iowa Senate President Amy Sinclair, a Republican from Allerton, said Senate Republicans have not yet discussed the proposal with Pate, but that it fits with their views on election integrity.
“I think Iowa law and federal law both are pretty clear in that only citizens should vote. We want every single eligible person to be able to go out and exercise their right to vote, and we don’t want people who aren’t eligible to get to vote,” Sinclair said. “So while we haven’t had that conversation specifically, I think it would be in the vein of the election integrity that Senate Republicans have historically pursued to support Secretary Pate in making sure our voter rolls are as accurate as possible for the folks working the polls.”
Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford, similarly said House Republicans have not yet discussed Pate’s specific proposal but would be willing to give it consideration.
Iowa Sen. Janice Weiner, of Iowa City, the new leader of the minority-party Senate Democrats, said “obviously” noncitizens should not be allowed to vote, but also cautioned against a law that could disenfranchise some eligible voters.
“When people do the work to become a citizen, it’s not easy. It’s an arduous process. And then people are rightly very proud when they become citizens, to be able to register to vote,” Weiner said. “And it’s really important that whatever is done be done in such a way that it doesn’t have a chilling effect on people who have worked hard for and earned the right as a U.S. citizen to cast their vote.”
Iowa Rep. Jennifer Konfrst, of Windsor Heights, the leader of the minority-party House Democrats, criticized Pate for his directive last year coming so close to November’s general election.
“I’m all for as much information as we can get to make sure that our voting system is secure and that the voters should be voting,” Konfrst said. “I want to make sure that it’s not a political witch hunt and that we’re actually working with the goal of ensuring that more people who are able to vote can vote than trying to reduce the amount of voters in the state.”
Gov. Kim Reynolds declined to be interviewed for The Gazette’s legislative preview series. Reynolds supported Pate’s directive for the 2024 election.
Civil rights groups sued Pate’s office over his directive, claiming it treated some naturalized U.S. citizens differently than others by forcing them to take extra steps to vote. A federal judge denied the groups’ request to stop Pate’s order.
Streamlining election recounts
Pate also plans to propose legislation that would streamline election recounts in Iowa.
Pate’s proposal would require all counties to conduct their election results canvass on the same day, clarify that all recounts must be district-wide within the county and allow for larger recount boards in the state’s more populous counties.
Similar legislation was introduced in the previous General Assembly and initially had strong bipartisan support, but the bill stalled and failed to pass.
Pate has stressed a need for the legislation to make Iowa’s recounts more consistent — rather than having a patchwork of recount procedures across different counties — ever since a messy recount in a historically close Eastern Iowa congressional election in 2020.
“We’re going to improve on the recount policy a little more,” Pate said. “We came a long ways from that (congressional) recount four years ago.”
The 2025 session of the Iowa Legislature is scheduled to begin Monday at the Iowa Capitol.
The proposed legislation follows the Iowa Secretary of State’s effort during the 2024 election to identify potential noncitizens attempting to vote.
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