Iowa House passes bills on voter roll verification, election recounts

The Iowa House passed two bills making changes to state election laws Tuesday, including a measure introduced by Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate on noncitizen voting.

House File 954, approved by the House 65-31, contains multiple changes to state election law, including a prohibition on ranked choice voting and increasing the requirement for candidates of a party to receive at least 10% of the general election vote to gain “political party” status. It also has language introduced by Pate ahead of the 2025 legislative session to allow the Secretary of State’s office to contract with federal and state agencies, as well as private entities, for verification and maintenance of the state’s voter rolls.

The issue gained prominence in the 2024 general election when Pate issued guidance to county auditors weeks before the Nov. 5, 2024 election to challenge the ballots of 2,176 voters identified by the state office as “potential noncitizens.” These individuals had self-identified to the Iowa Department of Transportation or another government entity as non-citizens within the past 12 years, but later went on to register to vote or participate in state elections.

Pate said the guidance was necessary because the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under former President Joe Biden had refused to share access to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database for the state to confirm the citizenship status of these individuals.




https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2025/03/25/iowa-house-passes-bills-on-voter-roll-verification-election-recounts/