Des Moines, Iowa — Iowa Secretary of State Paul says a recent review of Iowa voter registration lists for at least the past six elections found over 150 people who admitted they are not US citizens and are ineligible to vote.
Another 67 people who aren’t citizens registered to vote when they got a driver’s license, but Pate says the review his office conducted indicated that group did not cast a ballot. All 154 names have been forwarded to the Iowa Department of Public Safety and the Attorney General’s Office for investigation. Pate says his office has flagged another two thousand names on voter registration lists of people who may have become U.S. citizens in the past six or so years.
Pate says anyone in this group will be asked to cast a provisional ballot and required to return to their county auditor’s office after Election Day with proof of citizenship.
Joe Henry, state political director for the League of United Latin American Citizens, says the secretary of state already has safeguards in place to review people before they are approved and get a voter registration card and Pate’s statements will create fear among poll workers. Non-citizens found guilty of voting or even just registering to vote may be sentenced to up to five years in prison and fines as much as 75 hundred dollars.
