Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate has challenged the ballots of 2,022 registered Iowa voters. Pate won't release his list. Orçun Selçuk of Decorah is one of the US citizens Pate placed on his list. He is one of the plaintiffs in the ACLU's lawsuit. (courtesy of Orçun Selçuk)
Naturalized citizens are asking a federal judge to rescind an order from the Iowa Secretary of State requiring them to jump through more hoops to have their vote counted. The judge could have a ruling by Sunday.
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican, is telling poll workers to require a list of 2,022 registered voters to prove their citizenship in order to have their ballot count on November 5. The state has not made the list available. But reporting has thus far only found naturalized US citizens on the list.
A federal judge has been asked by some citizens on the list, as well as the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa, to order the Secretary of State to rescind his directive to poll workers.
The national ACLU, ACLU of Iowa and a Des Moines-based law firm argued the voter challenges violate the equal protection and due process clauses, in addition to the National Voter Registration Act and Voting Rights Act.
“I would go back to the fact that all the evidence in this case shows they are naturalized US citizens that have the right to vote,” Rita Bettis Austen of ACLU of Iowa.
The ACLU’s Jonathan Topaz said this kind of mass voter challenge should not occur weeks before an election.
“Every legal vote must count and not be canceled out by a noncitizen’s illegal vote,” said Attorney General Bird. “State and federal law are clear. Today, we made our case in court to defend Iowa’s election integrity laws and safeguard the vote.”
It is already a felony for noncitizens to vote. So far the state has offered no public evidence that the people on the list are not citizen voters.
The judge is supposed to rule on the case Sunday.
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