Days before election, state doubles down on challenging 2,000 Iowa voter registrations

DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Media Iowa Capitol Bureau) - Less than a week before the election, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate says he stands by his decision to challenge the voter registrations of more than 2,000 people. Pate says the people had reported at some point over the past decade, that they weren’t citizens, but voted or registered to vote.

“There are names in my opinion. When the dust all settles we will have people who shouldn’t be voting,” Pate said.

Pate acknowledges that not every one of the 2,200 names on his list is not a U.S. citizen. This comes after some county auditors, like Linn County Auditor Joel Miller, have reported that some of the names on Pate’s list are citizens.

“We have had 15 confirmed U.S citizens that are on that noncitizens list as of last night. So, I submitted another 13 names today. I’m expecting all of those people that were on that list are going to be US citizens as well,” Miller said.

Pate says he had to use Iowa Department of Transportation records to try and discover potential noncitizens who have voted, because the federal government won’t give him access to a database that contains information on people’s citizenship status. “Because of the timing of drivers licenses, some of them may have become a citizen since they filled out that form. It’s very frustrating. Very frustrating,” he said.

Pate says he felt the need to challenge these names due to conspiracy theories and concerns over the election’s integrity.

“Because we’ve had so much pressure put on the elections process across the country about not only noncitizens but on anything that’s not got full transparency in an election. And this is as close as we can come to providing that transparency at this time,” he said.

Miller, who ran against Pate in 2022, says if 10% of the voters flagged so far in Linn County are actually citizens, Pate’s list is flawed. “So that list should not be used we should. We should not be implementing them on election day on a statewide basis. If it’s that way in Linn County, with our 150, I’m sure it’s that way across the state of Iowa,” Miller said.

Pate says that none of the voters who are being challenged have been removed from the voter rolls. They can still come and vote on a provisional ballot. They’ll have to come back and show proof of their citizenship, like a passport, and their vote will be counted.

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Conner Hendricks covers state government and politics for Gray Media-owned stations in Iowa. Email him at conner.hendricks@gray.tv; and follow him on Facebook at Conner Hendricks TV or on X/Twitter @ConnerReports.