ACLU Files Iowa Lawsuit in Challenge to New Voter Purge

DES MOINES, Iowa — Late last night, the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Iowa, and the law firm of Faegre Drinker filed a federal lawsuit to stop the wrongful citizenship challenges of more than 2,000 Iowa voters by the Iowa secretary of state.

The lawsuit is filed on behalf of numerous naturalized U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote but are being wrongly kept from voting with a regular ballot. The secretary’s mass challenge to their eligibility was filed just two weeks before Election Day.

On October 22, 2024, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate ordered Iowa county auditors to challenge the eligibility of thousands of registered Iowa voters on a secret list his office created, based only on information from outdated Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) records, which can easily be several years old and does not reflect current citizenship status. Since Pate's directive, many of those people on the secret list have already been proven to be citizens.

Problematically, because the list is a secret, most Iowa voters who are on the list do not even know that they are on it. While some counties are providing the list as public information, most are not. In most counties, it’s only when voters go to vote that they have learned, or will learn, that they are on the list.

Because they are challenged, these Iowans are given a provisional ballot instead of a regular ballot and told their votes will not count unless they prove their citizenship to a county board that meets on November 12 to consider challenges after the election. In the cases of some others on the list, auditors or county attorneys receiving the list recognized them personally and reached out to notify them that they are on the list.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Des Moines, asks that election officials halt all efforts to prevent these Iowans from voting based on this demonstrably incorrect, outdated citizenship information. It also asks that these citizens be allowed to vote a regular ballot and have their ballot counted the same as any other United States citizen who is an Iowa voter.

ACLU of Iowa Legal Director Rita Bettis Austen said, "It is shocking that the state’s highest official charged with protecting the voting rights of Iowa citizens is spearheading an effort to disenfranchise Iowa citizens. He is fueling a false narrative about voter fraud by noncitizens and laying the groundwork to undermine confidence in the election. This attempted voter purge is all the more disturbing since Secretary Pate is now fully aware that the information his challenge is based on is not current and that many of the removed voters are naturalized United States citizens who now clearly have the right to vote. There is no lawful basis to require these citizens to vote provisional ballots instead of regular ballots like all other citizen voters. This is discriminatory and wrong."

One of the clients in the lawsuit, a person born in China who is now a citizen, became worried about Secretary Pate's threats she heard on the news. She called her local county auditor to make sure she wasn't on the list. That office wouldn't tell her then if she was or not, so she called the Secretary of State's office. It also didn’t give her an answer.

"I am feeling shocked and intimidated by all of this," she said. "I wonder how, in this country of freedom, can I be identified as a noncitizen when I am a United States citizen?"

Ari Savitzky, senior staff attorney with the national ACLU's Voting Rights Project, said, "Every American has an equal right to vote — period. When new citizens register and vote, it reminds us who we are as a country. It is a source of pride that we can all share in as Americans. For these Iowans to be betrayed in this way by their own government officials is shameful and it is illegal.”

LULAC of Iowa, a membership and advocacy organization of Latino United States citizens in Iowa, is also a plaintiff in the case.

Joe Enriquez Henry, state political director of the League of United Latin American Citizens Iowa, said, "Several years ago, Secretary Pate told a group of us that he wanted to work with community stakeholders such as ourselves to protect the right to vote. We never heard back from him. Instead, right before an election, he alerted the public that he isn't sure if 2,000 Iowans are eligible to vote, relying on old data. We believe they are, but he has failed to share the names of those Iowans, not allowing us to help verify their eligibility. This is disgraceful."

Craig Coleman, an attorney with Faegre Drinker, said, "Subjecting naturalized citizens to intimidation, election challenges, and investigation for exercising their fundamental right to vote violates the Constitution and federal election laws. We are going to court to protect the right of naturalized citizens to be free from government discrimination and to vote without interference."

Two other clients in the lawsuit tell about their experience more fully:

Orcun Selcuk
Decorah, Iowa

Orcun Selcuk (Pronounced or-CHOON SEL-chook) is a native of Turkey who became a citizen in 2023. He is a professor of political science and the international studies program director at Luther College in Decorah.

"Since achieving full citizenship status, I have been proud to vote in three elections so far. I did not face any challenge or difficulty in voting those first two times.

"As a political science professor, I understand and feel deeply about the importance of voting in a democracy. I know that the more hassles and bureaucracy and hoops a person has to jump through, the less likely they are to vote and to have their vote count.

"I voted early in October. Then I received notice from the Winneshiek County auditor, which challenged my ballot and stated that I was not a full U.S. citizen. The notice was a single page and very confusing. It gave a deadline of noon on Nov. 12 but didn't say what I was supposed to do or what documentation I needed to provide or where I was supposed to present it. There wasn't a letter or detailed explanation that came with it. I wasn't sure what exactly I was supposed to do.

"After you become a full U.S. citizen, one of the things they tell you is that you are now eligible to vote. But the State of Iowa seems to have some questions about that.

"I'm concerned about other new, full citizens who took the time to go and vote the first time and now maybe they have to go back again and prove themselves once again. Maybe they won't have the time or the transportation. Or maybe they will be afraid to go to the auditor's office. I'm concerned about their vote not being counted and about new citizens being intimidated from voting. Especially with people new to the country, they may be wrongly concerned about doing something wrong or breaking a law they weren't aware of."

Alan David “Dai” Gwilliam
Iowa City, Iowa

Alan David “Dai” (pronounced DIE) Gwilliam is a retired attorney, raised in Wales, who attended the University of Iowa and practiced law in Iowa City for many years.

"I was a Lawful Permanent Resident, also known as an LPR, for many years and then finally, in August of this year, became a full citizen. I was greatly anticipating being able to vote for the first time in the upcoming election and registered to vote shortly after gaining my citizenship status. I plan to vote on election day with my wife, Jennifer.

"However, I have learned—from a former colleague who is the Johnson County attorney, in fact—that I had been put on a list of people who Secretary Pate has accused of being non-citizen voters. I was told by the Johnson County attorney that I will have to vote provisionally and will then have to prove my citizenship before my vote can be counted. She told me I'd be receiving a letter about this from the county auditor.

"I understand from recent news articles that this list I was put on is based on outdated Iowa Department of Transportation records. And, in fact, in August of 2023, I renewed my Iowa driver's license while I was still on LPR status. Now, of course, I am a citizen.

"However, because Secretary Pate is relying on old data, I am having to cast a provisional ballot and go through time-consuming extra steps to exercise my new right to vote as a citizen. Those out-of-date DOT records are being used also to make voting more burdensome for other new citizens, not just me, and that's very disturbing.

"Secretary Pate has publicly stated that he was referring people identified in his review to the Iowa Attorney General to be investigated under suspicion of voting illegally and that they could be prosecuted for a class D felony, which is punishable in Iowa by up to five years in prison and a hefty fine.

"I was initially very alarmed when I read about Secretary Pate's statements and I believe that many other new, full citizens feel the same way. They may well be afraid to vote in the upcoming election. I myself am concerned about the consequences these voter challenges and investigations could have on me.

"My concerns are heightened for those new, full citizens who have not received advance warning as I did or fear the imposition and consequences of criminal investigation. My belief is that Secretary Pate issued this threat right before Election Day with the intent of intimidating me, others recently recognized as citizens, and others in immigrant communities so that we would be afraid to vote in the upcoming election. Even if I have not been referred for criminal prosecution, at the very least, I now have the burden of working through the bureaucracy in order to simply cast my vote, a fundamental right of citizenship that I gained after expending a lot of time, expense, and effort.

"I would urge other people who have citizenship status that whatever unusual accent you have, whatever country is your place of origin, or whatever the color of your skin, to not be cowed by these intimidation tactics, and to proudly exercise your right to vote. If you have completed the citizenship ceremony, then you can and should go to the polls and perform your duty in shaping the future of what is now our country."