Rick Hasen
Gary T. Schwartz Endowed Chair in Law and Professor of Political Science
UCLA School of Law
A federal judge has ruled that Iowa poll workers may continue challenging the ballots of more than 2,000 Iowans who are on a flawed list of possible noncitizens, denying a request to order counties to allow those named to vote normally.
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican, instructed county auditors on Oct. 22 to challenge the ballots of 2,176 registered voters who at some point in the past had told the Iowa Department of Transportation they were not U.S. citizens.
Any voter that is challenged must submit a provisional ballot, which won’t be counted unless they can provide proof of their citizenship by Nov. 12.
A group of naturalized citizens and the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa sued, saying Pate’s instruction to county auditors had wrongly forced naturalized citizens — who are eligible to vote — to jump through extra hoops to cast their ballots, simply because they had gotten a driver’s license before they became a citizen.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher wrote in a decision Sunday that both sides seem to agree that some portion of the people on the list are not U.S. citizens.
“This portion appears to be relatively small — no more than 12% — but, still, the injunctive relief requested by plaintiffs effectively would force local election officials to permit those individuals to vote,” Locher wrote. “Whatever concerns plaintiffs might have about the nature and timing of Secretary Pate’s letter, it would not be appropriate for the court to respond by granting injunctive relief that effectively forces local election officials to allow ineligible voters to vote.”
Several county auditors have identified at least some of the people on Pate’s list as naturalized citizens.
Linn County Auditor Joel Miller said in an email Sunday night that his office has confirmed the citizenship of 134 of the 150 people on the list he was provided by Pate’s office.
“At most, we will challenge 16 persons on the list, and only if they early voted via absentee or show up to vote on Election Day,” he said….
The opinion is here.
