Settlement Ensures Fair Voter Verification in Iowa: Secretary of State and Naturalized Citizens Reach Agreement
Iowa's Secretary of State, Paul Pate, and a group of naturalized citizens have reached a settlement in a federal lawsuit that will prevent the state from solely relying on driver's license records for citizenship data before an election. The lawsuit was filed by naturalized U.S. citizens who claimed that Pate's actions infringed on their voting rights by challenging ballots of registered voters identified as possible noncitizens. A review of Iowa's voter rolls found a small number of noncitizens among the millions of voters in the state.
Pate's office had compared voter rolls to a list of self-reported noncitizens to the Iowa Department of Transportation and sent the list to county election officials without directly contacting the voters. Pate argued that the transportation data was the best available source for citizenship data due to lack of access to federal immigration records under the Biden administration. However, Iowa can now use the federal government's Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program to verify voter information.
The settlement agreement states that the 2024 list of voters has been rescinded and cannot be used for future ballot-related challenges or voter list maintenance efforts. The naturalized citizens agreed to dismiss their claims in exchange for these terms. The ACLU of Iowa's legal director, Rita Bettis Austen, viewed the settlement as a victory for naturalized citizens' voting rights.
Pate and Iowa's Republican Attorney General, Brenna Bird, also considered the outcome a success, highlighting the use of federal databases like the SAVE program to verify voter rolls. The SAVE program, operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, has been upgraded under the Trump administration and was utilized in Iowa's voter roll review last year. This settlement aims to prevent similar challenges to naturalized citizens' voting rights in future elections.
In conclusion, the settlement between Iowa's Secretary of State and naturalized citizens ensures that citizenship data for voter verification will not solely rely on driver's license records before an election. The use of federal databases like the SAVE program will help maintain the integrity of Iowa's voter rolls while safeguarding the voting rights of naturalized U.S. citizens.