Iowa Secretary of State's bill on voter citizenship verification advances
Secretary of State Paul Pate’s legislative proposal on voter registration verification was advanced by a Senate subcommittee Thursday. Pate called for the bill after his actions to challenge potential noncitizens’ ballots raised contention during the 2024 general election.
Senate Study Bill 1088 makes changes that would allow the Secretary of State’s office to contract with state and federal agencies, as well as with private vendors, to verify the citizenship status of registered voters. It would require the Iowa Department of Transportation share a list of people who have submitted documentation indicating they are not U.S. citizens for the office to compare with the list of registered voters.
The bill comes in the wake of guidance from the Secretary of State weeks before the 2024 general election to challenge the ballots of 2,176 registered voters who were listed as “potential noncitizens” — individuals who had self-identified as noncitizens to the DOT or another government entity within the past 12 years who had later registered to vote or participated in state elections. The ACLU, on behalf of naturalized citizens and the League of United Latin American Citizens, brought a lawsuit against the guidance before the election, but a federal judge ruled to uphold the directive as there were confirmed noncitizens on the Secretary of State’s list.
Pate said this process was necessary because the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under former President Joe Biden’s administration had denied the state access to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database to verify the citizenship status of these flagged individuals. At a Senate subcommittee meeting Thursday, Pate told lawmakers his office was granted access to the SAVE database earlier in February, but the legislation was a way for the Iowa SOS to continue to partner with agencies for voter registration verification.
https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2025/02/20/iowa-secretary-of-states-bill-on-voter-citizenship-verification-advances/