Iowa governor signs bill allowing poll workers to challenge voters over citizenship

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) signed a bill on Monday permitting poll workers to challenge voters over citizenship. 

The House File 954 legislation will require individuals to present proof of citizenship to election workers who question their legal status in the United States. 

If poll workers are not satisfied with the supporting documents, a voter would only be allowed to cast a provisional ballot until their citizenship is confirmed by state or federal records.

Concerns regarding noncitizen voters casting ballots heightened last year after President Trump and Vice President Vance spread unsupported claims that the issue of immigrants without legal status committing voter fraud was widespread. 

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate (R) shared similar allegations and challenged 2,000 ballots days before the 2024 general election. An investigation revealed that 35 of the 1.7 million votes cast were ballots from noncitizens.

“Proud to stand with @IAGovernor Reynolds as she signed HF928 & HF954 into law, strengthening recounts and voter verification,” Pate wrote in a Tuesday post on the social platform X.

“Thanks to Reps. @AustinHarrisIA & Bloomingdale, Sen. Rozenboom, our county auditors & the Iowa Legislature for supporting fair, secure elections in Iowa,” he added.

Under the new state law, the secretary of state would be provided with a list of Iowa residents over the age of 17 years who have self-identified as noncitizens with the Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT).

The law would also create an “unconfirmed” voter registration status for individuals whose citizenship the state cannot verify, according to The Gazette.

“We are very concerned to see this bill signed into law. The Iowa Legislature should have focused on making sure that the Secretary of State was reined in after the illegal debacle we saw take place in the days leading up to the 2024 election using IDOT data,” Rita Bettis Austen, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, told the Des Moines Register.

“We know that effort was a harmful failure, sweeping in thousands of fully qualified U.S. citizen voters in Iowa. But instead, this law reads like a recipe for more racial profiling, discrimination and voter intimidation impacting qualified voters,” she added.

The bill is set to go into effect on July 1. 

Reynolds’s office did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.