Statement from Secretary of State Paul Pate on Noncitizen Voting

DES MOINES – It is imperative that only eligible Iowa voters vote in Iowa elections. As part of our many safeguards in protecting Iowa elections, we conduct regular audits of our voter registration lists to maintain clean voter rolls and maintain compliance with state and constitutional voting requirements.

Through this auditing process, we recently reviewed 2.3 million voter records. We have found 87 people who have self-reported they are not citizens, after they have voted. We found an additional 67 people who have self-reported that they are not citizens, after they have registered to vote – they have not voted. We are turning the names of these individuals over to the Iowa Attorney General and the Iowa Department of Public Safety for potential prosecution.

We also came across 2,022 people who have self-reported they are not citizens and voted or registered to vote after self-reporting.

I have directed county auditors to have their poll workers challenge the ballots of any of these individuals during the 2024 General Election. All these individuals will be able to vote by casting a provisional ballot.

We have run into roadblocks from the federal government, as have states across the country that are involved in lawsuits with the Department of Justice and federal government agencies. We will be working with both our Attorney General and Iowa’s Congressional Delegation to ensure the federal government gives us the tools to know with certainty before a noncitizen is able to register and vote in Iowa elections. Instead of identifying noncitizens after they have voted, we will work with the Iowa legislature to strengthen our laws.

We will continue to audit our voter registration lists to ensure only eligible, U.S. citizens are registered to vote and participating in Iowa elections. It is absolutely critical that eligible citizens are able to vote and we are not disenfranchising any eligible voters.

It is a felony for noncitizens to either vote or register to vote, and we will work with the authorities to ensure that those who break the law are prosecuted to the fullest extent.