Federal Judge rules Iowa can continue to challenge voter status on list compiled by Secretary of State

Hunter
11/04/24

A federal judge ruled Sunday that Iowa poll workers can continue to challenge the voter status of people on a list compiled by Secretary of State Paul Pate despite evidence that the list is flawed.

Pate instructed county auditors on October 22nd to challenge the ballots of nearly 2200 registered voters who at some point in the last 24 years had told the Iowa Department of Transportation that they were not US citizens.

Any challenged voter must submit a provisional ballot; proof of citizenship must be provided by November 12th or their vote won’t count.

The League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa sued, saying that naturalized citizens on the list were being discriminated against simply because they got a driver’s license before they became citizens.

Judge Stephen Locher acknowledged that the actual number of non-citizens on Pate’s list is no more than 12 percent, but said it wouldn’t be appropriate for the court to throw out the list entirely and allow ineligible voters to vote.

Pate called the decision “a win for Iowa’s election integrity,” while ACLU of Iowa legal director Rita Battis Austen said the judge’s ruling threatens to disenfranchise eligible voters simply because they became citizens in the past several years.