Iowa's Matt Schultz Faces Court Battle Over Voter Fraud Rules

The American Civil Liberties Union and the United Latin American Citizens' district said that Secretary of State Matt Schultz plans to purge Iowa voter registration lists by checking them against sketchy state and federal lists of foreign nationals and unsworn voter fraud claims, several media outlets are reporting.

Schultz released a statement late Thursday afternoon stating that the groups' concerns were unfounded.

Schultz approved two emergency voter fraud rules July 20 that would allow him to challenge the registration of voters if their names are similar to names found on state and federal lists of foreign nationals and also approved a rule allowing people to file complaints of voter fraud without oaths, the organization's leaders said. Fraud tips would be accepted via email which doesn't require a sworn statement, the Ames Tribune reported.

The civil rights organizations have filed an injunction blocking the new rules that could cause many to have their voter registrations thrown out just before the general election.

"To begin a purge of registered voters so close to the fall elections is unconscionable," said Joseph Enriquez Henry, state director of LULAC, a Latino and Hispanic civil rights and advocacy group, according to SFGate.

According to the SFGate story, if voter registrations are thought to be ineligible that voter would be sent a notice telling them that they are illegally registered to vote which is a Class D felony and given 14 days to dispute the claim.

The injunction was filed Wednesday, the Des Moines Register said.

Schultz said his office has uncovered more than 1,000 registered voters who might not be citizens. 

“The federal government maintains a database called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlement (SAVE). SAVE maintains information about an individual’s immigration status, including whether they have become naturalized as a citizen and, if so, when," Schultz said in a prepared statement.

"After seeking access to this database in order to verify the citizenship status of these individuals, we finally were informed in late July that the federal government would give the State of Iowa access to that database to verify citizenship and that Iowa would be required to submit a new application. As a result we immediately enacted administrative rules to clarify to the federal government, and the public, what legal process we would use to remove non-citizens from the voter rolls. The new rules enhance the due process available to individuals identified through this effort.

To be as fair as possible in this process, we are giving every individual a hearing prior to being removed from the voter rolls. No county auditor, I repeat, no auditor has been directed to remove any person’s name from the voter registration rolls for being a non-citizen. There is no purge of non-citizens taking place in Iowa and to say otherwise is a misrepresentation of the facts.

Our only intent has been to work for integrity and honesty in elections. That is what the people of Iowa hired me to do and I take it as a serious responsibility of this office.”